Twisted Fate
by MoonDance29
Summary: I find out I'm a demigod, go through endless experiences, and live to tell the tale. Am I lucky? Yes. Do I like all of the stuff I go through? No. BUT, this is pretty cool.
1. Chapter 1

_Natalie's POV _

I sighed as I walked up the front steps of my school, at the start of a new year. I had been kicked out of every school since kindergarten, and this was the start of the tenth grade and the eighth school I had gone to. It was the only one I hadn't been kicked out of the previous year.

My best friend since preschool and the best boyfriend in the world walked on my right, and his name is Trevor. My other best friend walked on my left, and I had met her in first grade. Her name is Alexis. I'll tell you now; she is the girliest person you'll ever meet. She does stuff like play with her multiple Gucci bags when she should be doing her homework, to braiding her long auburn hair in class.

"Why so down daffodil?" she asked. Daffodil was her pet name for me. I don't know if she thought it would make me a brighter person, but there was no chance of that. I was paler two times paler then a Cullen, and had long blond curly hair. But what stood out most about me were my gray-almost-black eyes. Oh, and that I was semi-gothic. I wasn't in to all that Edgar Allan Poe stuff, or acting like the world is so drab.

"You know she doesn't like to be called that," said Trevor. I looked into his bright green eyes and mouthed _Thank you_ to him. He winked at me in understanding. His black hair shone in the sunlight, and his lightly tanned skin glimmered in surfer-guy radiance. He was the number one surfer in New York, in my opinion. I leaned over and pecked him on the lips. Now, you always hear these stories of how people have "true love" and you may not think it exists, but Trevor and I loved each other.

You see, Trevor and I both only had moms. Our dads had left when/before we were born. Alexis had a similar situation, except she only had a dad. We were all also dyslexic and ADHD.

Trevor smiled at me, and Alexis rolled her eyes at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some new kids I hadn't seen the year before. A tall blond girl with deeply tanned skin, maybe around sixteen or seventeen was arguing with a crippled gangly boy with curly brown hair, a taller boy with messy black hair who greatly resembled Trevor, a short Italian gothic boy with black hair and pale skin, and a big beefy girl with stringy brownish-blond hair.

"What's up with them?" Trevor mumbled, half under his breath and half to Alexis and me.

"I dunno," Alexis shrugged. The tall blond girl looked our way, and stared at us.

"Creepy," I said. She pushed the curly brunette boy around so he could see us. He started limp-walking towards us, and I grabbed Alexis and Trevor by the wrists and towed them away as quickly as I could.

"Wait!" the boy called after us.

"What?" I asked him, twirling around and fingering the hunting knife I kept in my pocket.

He looked the three of us over and said quietly, "I just wanted to get to know you guys. Would you like to come meet my friends? We're all new here."

"Uh…" I said, looking to my friends to see if we should. Trevor shrugged, and Alexis nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Let's go!" she said, pushing me after the weird new boy. I grabbed Trevor's hand as I was towed towards a bunch of kids that I didn't know.

The tall blond girl smiled at us, the big beefy girl scoffed, the boy with green eyes and black hair stared at Trevor, and the gothic boy stared right at me. I looked away, blushing. I mean, what was up with this kid? Or correction: these _kids_. They were all so strange and out of place.

"Hi," I said, stiffly smiling. "I'm Natalie. This is Trevor," I said, gesturing to him, "and this is Alexis," I said, pointing to Alexis, who was smiling and waving at them.

"I'm Annabeth," said blondie. Her eyes creeped me out, they were a stormy shade of gray that was very different from anything I'd ever seen.

"Sup, I'm Nico," said the Italian gothic kid, still staring at me. I smiled warmly at him; he seemed so much like me.

"Hey, I'm Percy," the boy who _I _thought looked a _lot _like Trevor. As if on cue, Trevor wrapped a protective arm around my waist. I looked over to see him staring at Percy. Gosh, Trevor was so cute when he was jealous… but back to the point.

"I'm Clarisse," the big scary girl said. Note to self: stay far, far away from her. She looked like she could pulverize you just by looking at you.

"And I'm Grover," the boy who had come over to us said. I noticed he smelled a little bit like a farm, maybe he lived on one.

"You all have very… _unique_ names. Did you all come from around here? I mean, are you on a study program?" I said. I wasn't the type of person to hold back in my comments, but that was probably the ADHD part of me. Alexis elbowed me in the gut, and I grunted in pain, but I ignored it. The majority of the new kids rolled their eyes at my cockiness, but her, what do I care?

"Uh, yeah, we all come from around here," Annabeth said, walking towards the front doors of the school. The enormous school sign passed over our heads, but all I could tell it said was Yacny Admceay.

"Ugh," I groaned, squinting my eyes in pain. Trevor and Alexis's twitched next to me, alerting me that they were having the same dyslexic problem as me. Big words just didn't work for me.

The new kids (I decided I'd call them that caus' hey, they can't read my thoughts so what do I care?) stared at me and I said, "Sorry, I'm dyslexic. So are Trevor and Alexis. The school sign was bugging my eyes."

They exchanged a glance with each other before Grover asked, "Are the three of you by any chance ADHD also?"

We nodded. Poor Grover almost jumped out of his skin, and he started twiddling his thumbs. "I, uh, have to go make a call," he said, and hobbled away. Annabeth and Percy nervously looked at each other, while Clarisse and Nico had a thumb-war. Our principal, Mrs. Dodds walked out from behind us a laid a hand on my shoulder. I was a pretty good student, other than my occasional temper issue. She looked all of the new students over, and she paid extra attention to Percy and Nico. They seemed afraid and angry that she was here, and Percy nervously fingered the pen in his pocket.

"Hello there students," she said.

"Hi Mrs. Dodds," we mumbled.

"Hello Alecto," Nico muttered under his breath. She stared at him, obviously annoyed.

"You should get to class," she said, still staring at Percy and Nico.

"Yes ma'am," I said, hitching my backpack up on my shoulder, and taking Trevor by the hand. The new kids and Alexis hovered closely by my shoulder, and Alexis struck up a conversation with Percy.

Grover hurried back over to us from wherever he had been making a call and whispered something to Percy and Annabeth that sounded like, "He said to take them _now_."

Annabeth nodded and said something like, "I'll come up with something." Then (I sort of expected this) she tripped. Of course… "Ow, my ankle!" she moaned. "I think I need to go back to my home for today," she said, whacking Percy and Grover in the skins.

"Listen," I said. "If this is about taking us to wherever we have to go, then we'll just come with you." They looked at me quizzically and I said, "You need to learn how to whisper quieter."

"Fine," she sighed. "We need you guys to come to camp with us. We can explain why while we're going."

"Okay," I said. We followed them out to the street where there was a strawberry van waiting. "Is your camp a strawberry picking camp?"

"No," Percy said. "It's just how we make the money for our camp, and we also use it as cover."

We all hopped into the van, Annabeth, Percy, Clarisse, Nico, and Grover more nervous than the rest of us. "Chillax you guys," I said. "It's not like there's monsters out to kill us."

"Don't be so sure," Nico said. The van noisily started up and drove to a tall grassy hill, with a big tree on top. The weird part: There was a big golden blanket on the tree, and a small dragon wrapped around the tree.

"Whoa," I said. "Uh, that's… different." They towed us out of the van and over the hill. There were lots little cabin-ish things, and tons of other buildings. I whimpered: my brain was starting to collapse under the weirdness of the situation. Trevor and Alexis gasped beside me.

"Now we should probably explain," Percy said. "The Greek gods are real. All of the myths about them are real too. The monsters are also real. You three are children of the gods, along with all of the rest of the kids at this camp. Your parents will claim you, but they already should have…" he said, trailing off. "They should have claimed you when you were thirteen. How old are you all?"

"Fifteen," Alexis said in her high girly voice.

"Same here," Trevor and I said in unison. "And the gods are really real?" Percy nodded.

"I'm the son of Poseidon," Percy said.

"I'm the son of Hades," Nico said, shuffling his feet on the soggy grass.

"I'm a daughter of Athena," Annabeth said, brightly smiling.

"I'm a daughter of Ares," Clarisse said. Well, that would explain her mean-looking-ness.

"Then who is Grover's godly parent?" I asked.

"I'm a satyr," Grover said, taking off his pants.

"Whoa whoa," I said, shielding my eyes. "Keep your pants on big boy." He rolled his eyes at me and continued to take his pants off, revealing big shaggy goat legs. "Dude, get a razor."

Then, just to add the weirdness, a horse-guy trotted up the hill. "Ah, I see we have our new campers," he said. "And what are their names?"

"Uh…" I said, slightly dazed that I was talking to a pony guy. "I'm Natalie."

"I'm Trevor."

"And I'm Alexis."

"Hey," I said. "You're a centaur! I remember reading about them in my Greek mythology books. You must be Chiron, because Chiron was the only centaur interested in teaching. Right?"

"Yes, that is correct. I'm very impressed that you know that," Chiron said. I beamed with pride. "Well, Percy and Annabeth will take you to the Hermes cabin to get set up in there. I'm sure Connor and Travis Stoll will get you some supplies to use."

"How long will we be in the Hermes cabin?" Alexis asked.

"Until you're claimed," Percy answered. "Which hopefully won't be long."

As they led us to the Hermes cabin, they explained what had happened since Percy came to camp a few years ago. They told us about how this guy named Luke had gone to the dark side (I wonder if they had cookies…) and let Kronos use his body to _almost_ take over the world. But in the end, Luke saved everyone by committing suicide. Personally, it didn't sound like this guy Luke killed himself. It only sounded like he had expelled Kronos from his body, but his soul was still alive in spirit. (No pun intended.)

"And you're sure he's dead?" I asked as he pulled open the door to let Trevor, Alexis, and I inside.

"Well, no…" he said uncertainly. "But there's no way he could be alive. I shrugged and muttered a _whatever_ at him. The inside of the cabin was bigger than the outside. The bunk beds lined the walls, and there were twice as many campers as there were beds. Every head in the cabin turned to look at us, the three new campers.

A lot of the kids had a freaky mischievous look to them, but we were the only semi-normal looking people in the room. And probably the oldest normal looking kids too. "Well, good luck," Annabeth said. "You'll need it."

Two boys that looked like twins hopped over to us and introduced themselves as Connor and Travis. So _these_ were the guys that were supposed to help us. Too bad I didn't trust them. They disappeared for a few minutes, and came back with their arms full of sleeping bags, tooth brushes, and weird orange shirts that said Camp Half-Blood on the chest.

"Ugh, it's orange," I said, disgusted because I look _horrible_ in orange.

"You'll live, or you can _dye_ it," Connor, or Travis (I can't tell which is which) laughed at the corny joke. "So this is where you'll be staying for a while," they said in unison.

"Lovely," Alexis sniffed, cradling her designer bag to her chest protectively.

"Hey, how come there are so many cabins out there?" I asked them.

"Well," one of them started, "after Percy made the request for each god and goddess, even the minor ones to have a cabin, all of the campers have been getting claimed. He made the gods claim each of their kids by the time that they turned thirteen, so you three have been a little pushed out of the circle. What are you guys, fifteen? Sixteen maybe? Anyways, you three are probably children of more minor gods, so don't worry about that. Except for this one," he said, gesturing to Alexis, "is probably a daughter of Aphrodite. None of the more major gods have had any kids since Percy, Nico, Bianca, and Thalia. They're the children of the big three."

"The big three are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, right?" Trevor asked.

He nodded."Yup, that'd be them. Percy told you about the oath thing, right?"

"Yeah, he did. You guys should get set up. There's some room over there for you guys," he said, pointing to an open spot in the corner of the room. "Um, by any chance would you have shaving cream with you?"

"No," we all replied reluctantly. Percy and Annabeth had warned us that if they got their hands on a bottle of that stuff, it would probably end up in our sleeping bags.

We set up our stuff and prepared for the long experience ahead of us.


	2. Chapter 2

We sat there for what felt like hours surrounded by so many different demigods. The cabins looked pretty cool, except for the Ares cabin creeped me out. Alexis met some Aphrodite kids that she fit in pretty well with. She went off to somewhere to gossip and play with makeup and other girly things like that. Trevor and I wandered around uselessly trying to avoid prying campers.

We constantly heard questions like "Why are you guys so old?" and "Have you been claimed yet?" or "Are you guys new?" We ended up hiding behind the Hades cabin to avoid all of the people that we didn't know.

"What do we do?" he whispered.

"Sit here and be quiet," I answered. And that's what we did, until the conch horn blew for dinner. We snuck around behind cabins until we came to the dining area. The Hermes cabin had lined up to go to dinner, so we stood at the back of the line, hoping to be unnoticed.

I guess that didn't work too well. "Where the heck have you guys been?" Alexis asked.

"Hiding from evil little kids," Trevor hissed at her.

She raised an eyebrow at the comment and said, "Wow. I've been hanging out with the Aphrodite kids all day, and I'm just like them! They're so cool!" she said, beaming.

"Well good to know that you had a fun day," I mumbled as we sat down at the cramped table.

Chiron clopped up at the head table and clanked his fork against his goblet. "Now campers," he started, "we have some new demigods today. We have had many in the past year since we won the battle for Olympus!" There was lots of cheering at this comment. I noticed that Annabeth sat with a bunch of athletic looking blondes, Percy sat by himself, Nico sat alone, and Clarisse sat with a whole load of obnoxious looking people. Chiron gestured for us to stand up, so we did, but not before I pulled my black hoodie up over my head.

Of course, nothing could go right with me around. An echo of gasps echoed around the room, and I looked at Trevor and Alexis to see them staring just over each other's heads, and over mine. I looked up to see a hologram of a black skull over my head. Over Trevor's head, there was a shining green trident, and over Alexis's head there was a sparkling pink heart. I could see almost every kids mouth hanging open. Percy and Nico looked like they were going to pass out, but the Aphrodite kids looked like they couldn't be happier.

"Well…" I said, breaking the eerie silence.

"Well," Chiron said. "You've been claimed. Natalie, you're a daughter of Hades. Trevor, you are a son of Poseidon. And Alexis, you are a daughter of Aphrodite." The campers stood up, only to kneel in front of us.

"Well isn't that just lovely," I said.

Nico helped me get moved into the Hades cabin with him. "Wow, the only family I've ever had is Bianca and dad. I never thought I'd have another sister after…" he trailed off, obviously talking about Bianca.

I patted him on the back and said, "I know how it feels."

"So you'd think," he murmured, almost too quiet for me to hear.

"Yes, I would," I said angrily. "My little brother was shot dead when I was ten. I understand how it feels, Nico."

He was quiet for a while, and then said, "I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"I know, you didn't know," I said. "It's okay. I just lose my temper sometimes; it's a really touchy subject for me. Hey, I'm going to head over to see how Trevor and Alexis are doing, okay?"

"Sure," he said. "See ya later."

I felt a little bad leaving Nico alone, but I didn't want to continue talking about my little brother. I walked in the darkness until I found cabin number three: Poseidon's cabin. I could see the lights on inside, and people moving around inside. I knocked on the door, and sat there in the cold for a minute before the door opened. It was Percy.

"Oh, hey," I said. "Is Trevor here? I can come back later-"

"Natalie!" Trevor said, appearing from behind Percy. He looked flustered, like he had run a marathon around his cabin. "What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to see if I could help you unpack, and you know… I wanted to see my boyfriend," I said, shuffling my feet around.

He smiled a big lopsided grin at me. "Well, I would _love_ some help, and I always want to see you," he said, wrapping his arms around my waist. I giggled happily and kissed him lightly on the lips. He kissed me back, his warm lips tasted like salty water. I loved it.

Just as I was knotting my hands into his hair, a big splash of water come through the doorway, and splattered all over us. Of course, Trevor didn't get wet one bit. But I however, was soaked.

"Percy!" I sputtered. I was dripping wet. He poked his head out of the cabin and mischievously smiled at me.

"Yes?" He said.

"Why am I dripping wet?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "Maybe it was a case of a rogue water balloon."

Remind me later to get revenge on him. I stuck my tongue out at him before kissing Trevor one last time on the lips, and then headed off to see how Alexis was doing. I knocked on the big pink door lightly. I waited a few seconds, and then a prissy girl with long brown hair opened the door. Ugh, she was wearing all _pink_ with _glitter_. How horrible.

"Uh, is Alexis here?" I asked.

"No," she said nervously. I guess that she didn't like goth kids. "She went out a while ago, and didn't say when she'd be back."

"Okay, thanks," I said, twirling around to go back to my cabin. Just as I was turning around, I ran face-to-face into Alexis. "Hey, where were you?" I asked.

"Oh, I was… showering," she said nervously, blushing a deep crimson red.

"But your hair isn't wet, and you don't smell like you were showering."

"Oh, that's right. I was just coming back to grab my shampoo. I'll see ya later!" she said, pushing past me into the cabin.

"Sure, bye," I said. Was it just me, or did something seem a little off about her…?


	3. Chapter 3

I opened my eyes slowly. I looked out the window, and saw that it was barely light out, and still half dark out. I could see (and hear) that Nico was still asleep in the bunk bed next to me, and covered in thick black blankets. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five in the morning.

"Well, may as well go for a jog if I'm awake," I muttered under my breath. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and my Stanford sweatshirt, and then laced up my Nike sneakers before going out to run. The morning air was cool and refreshing, and it woke me up. I decided that I'd go for a run in the forest, since I hadn't explored it all that much. I set off down a grassy path, keeping to the trail as much as I could. I didn't have any weapons with me, other than my hunting knife, so I hoped that no monsters would attack me.

I had been jogging for about twenty minutes, and the sun was barely coming over the horizon. My mind wandered to last night, with Trevor. Maybe I'd stop by his cabin this morning after my jog, and then I remembered: today was our three year anniversary from the first day that we started dating. Was it cheesy? Yes. But did I love it? Heck yes. I smiled to myself as I jogged. I came to a little clearing, where I stopped to catch my breath. A little rustling noise off at the end of the clearing caught my attention.

_Should I investigate it?_ I thought. The answer: _Well, duh._

I quietly walked back to the area where I had heard the noise, and froze at what I saw. My insides churned painfully at the sight. My heart froze, and did what seemed like stopped beating. I had to use all of my power to keep from gasping, or screaming, or crying like a baby. What I saw was horrible.

Two people were sucking face like their lives depended on it. Those two people were Alexis and Trevor. The two people that I trusted most, and loved with all my heart, who had been like family to me, had gone and stabbed me in the heart. And even worse, they had done it on our _anniversary_. I turned around and ran as fast as I could away from there.

Negative energy swirled around inside of me, as I ran for what seemed like hours. I felt the ground trembling beneath me as the energy pushed to the surface of my skin, scalding me and my heart. I felt the tears sliding down my face. I came to the hill that stood between the cabins and the forest and headed over them. At the tip of the trembling hill, I tripped over a tiny stupid rock.

I tumbled head over heel down the hill, which was shaking like a nine-point-zero earthquake. I heard someone scream, it sounded like a mix of my voice, Chiron's scream, and a voice that I didn't recognize.

My sanity and my consciousness slipped away from me, and I fell into an endless sad slumber.

I felt pain even in my sleep. But what I saw most in my dreams wasn't Trevor, or even Alexis. It was a tall blond boy with a big scar running down his face. I saw him talking to someone who I will _presume_ is Hades.

"You are in between life and death, Luke," Hades said.

_Luke,_ I thought. So this was the boy that had almost ended the world. Interesting.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"The fates and I have been discussing this for quite a while. I did not believe that you should get to live, but they thought differently. Do you have anything to say?"

_Don't kill him,_ I thought.

"No, sir."

Hades sighed, "Well then, I may as well get to the point. They have decided to let you live." The roof above their heads started shaking, and growing stronger and stronger. "What in the underworld?" Hades exclaimed. The boy named Luke looked frightened, and covered his head with his arms. His form glowed very bright for a moment, and then disappeared.

_Help,_ I moaned in my sleep.

I felt hands on my arms, gently shaking me.

"Five more minutes," I groaned. I'd rather face a dream any day then have to face the reality right now.

"Natalie, wake up," the voice said. It was Chiron's voice, pulling me out of my trance. I ignored it and slipped back into sleep.

My eyes snapped open. It was quiet, and the stars shone through the open window. I flexed my hands; they worked fine, except for a bit of cramping. I felt the top of my head for bumps, and found a long bumped up line on my head: stitches.

"Ouch," I whispered.

"You're awake?" someone loudly whispered next to me. I almost jumped out of my skin; I had thought I was alone.

"Yes, who am I talking to?"

The voice hesitated for a minute and answered, "Luke Castellan. May I ask who I'm talking to?"

"I'm Natalie. Hey, you're that guy that… never mind," I said, stiffly sitting up. "Ow."

"So how'd you end up here?" he asked me quietly.

"I tripped down a hill after I saw my boy friend cheating on me with my best friend on our anniversary. What about you?"

"I was half dead and then came back to life after I was proved worthy of living. I've had relationship problems in the past too. It hasn't always been easy for me. Are you new at camp? I mean, I know I've been out of the loop for a while, but last I heard, there was only Nico in the Hades cabin."

"Well, I _just_ found out that I'm a daughter of Hades. You're a son of Hermes, right?"

"Yes," he sighed. "But I don't really want to be. I've always felt like there was no one there for me."

"I think that it would be cool to have Hermes for a parent, and you're lucky that you have so much family. You'll always have someone there for you. A lot of people don't have that, you know."

He didn't say anything. I had thought that he had fallen asleep, but he said, "I never thought of it that way. See, when my dad left me with my mom, I felt abandon. She was in a way, crazy. Completely out of her mind. And I was the one who had to take care of her, and put up with her freak attacks. And why I'm telling this to a complete stranger, I don't know." He groaned in pain.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He pointed to his shoulder. "It just started hurting. I don't think it's completely healed from when I broke it."

I slightly wondered when he had time to break his shoulder. A voice in my head said, _You know how to heal it. _

I guess I did. I pressed a palm to his shoulder, and it started to glow. I concentrated very hard on healing it, and he gasped, and then the glowing died down. "Are you okay? How does it feel?" I asked anxiously.

"Better," he said, rubbing it. "How did you do that?"

"I dunno," I said, shrugging.

I sniffed at the memory of the guy I loved kissing the girl who was like a sister to me. It tore a hole the size of Olympus in my heart, that didn't feel like it would ever heal. I felt like a Bella that had just lost her Edward, or a Juliet that had just lost her Romeo: hopeless. I fell backwards onto the bed, momentarily forgetting how to stand, or breathe. I choked in the air and pushed the memory the back of my head.

"Now it's my turn to ask _you_ if you're okay," he said, slowly sitting up.

I nodded, trying not to bring up what I could barely think about, much less talk about. I could see the scar on his face in the moonlight now, and it stretched from just under his eye all the way down to his jaw. "That's not so bad," I told him.

"What, this thing?" he asked, stroking his scar mournfully.

"Yeah, that. I've seen worse."

"Like what?" he scoffed.

"Like _this_," I said, lifting up my shirt. He reflectively covered his eyes but I said, "No, it's okay."

He uncovered his eyes to see _my_ scar. It ran all the way down the left side of my body, from my shoulder to my ankle.

"Whoa, how did you get it?" he asked, slightly wincing at the sight.

"A hydra attacked me when I was little, or so my mom tells me. I got temporary amnesia from that moment when I was four, and don't remember anything from before or during that day."

"So we've both had our share of experiences," he said. "I'm a little surprised that you're not trying to strangle me, or even yelling at me for what I almost did to Olympus."

"Well," I said, "I don't judge people that I have nothing against. I wasn't aware of what was going on in this huge world of Greek Gods and Titans or anything, so can I really say what was right or wrong if I had no clue that any of this was even going on?"

He scowled at me. "That wasn't the answer I was looking for. See, I'm worried that now that I'm alive again, the people that once knew me won't want me back."

"You mean they don't know you're alive?"

"No. They felt the earthquake that was caused when Hades was bringing me back to life," so _that's_ what that was. "But Chiron had us out of sight before anyone could see either of us. You were passed out like a log, and your head was cut open."

"Oh great. I was blinded by tears and I tripped over a stupid little rock and tripped down a stinking hill."

"It's okay," he said, patting me on the back. "We all have our moments… well, not all of us but you know what I mean."

"Well don't you know how to make someone feel better," I said.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "You don't really learn how to be warm and fuzzy on the dark side. And _apparently_ the dark side also doesn't have cookies!"

I giggled at his comment. There was always that comment of "Come to the dark side, we have cookies," but I had never really thought it was true. This just confirmed my suspicion.

"Don't worry, if they don't accept you for who you are, or who you _were_, then they're not your real friends. And even if no one wants to hang out with you, I will, because for the moment, I've pretty much lost all of the friends that I came with."

"Thanks. I guess I'm in a similar situation too. Do you know what time it is?"

I looked at my watch. "It's about half an hour past three. How long have I been out?"

"Hmm," he said, "about three days."

"What? Three days? I must have really hit my head! How come you're still here?"

"I acted like I was asleep. I didn't want to be the only one explaining their situation," he replied sheepishly.

Clopping noises sounded in the hall outside the room, and the door knob turned. Luke and I stared at the door, and waited for Chiron to come in.


	4. Chapter 4

I had come to a point somewhere in my mind where I decided that I had fallen into a coma and was dreaming. I took things lightly. But let me tell you: if I didn't wake up soon, then I was going to seriously freak out at someone, or try to jump off a cliff or something. None of this stuff was normal, and that's a fact. I'm not sure how much I liked this dream though. I mean, in real life, would my boy friend cheat on me? No. So I absolutely did believe that I was dreaming.

Chiron opened the door slowly, to see if we were awake. I blinked at him and thought, _The only way that there could be a half-horse-half-man right in front of me is if I was dreaming._ I smiled to myself, knowing that I would probably wake up soon.

"I see you two are awake," he said, stating the obvious. We nodded. "Are you two feeling okay? You both took quite the spill."

"I'm fine," I murmured lightly.

"Same here," Luke said.

_This is all a dream. This is all a dream._

He asked us both to explain what had happened. Luke explained all about how he had "magically" come back to life, and I calmly explained that I had fallen down a hill and hit my head, making me pass out. I didn't want to go into details about _why _I had been running out of the forest. The sun was barely rising when we were done talking.

"Those are two of the weirdest stories that I've ever heard," he said. "Mostly Mr. Castellan's story, but you get my point."

I subtly pinched myself on the arm, and winced in pain. _Ow,_ I thought. _How come I can feel that if I'm asleep?_

Then it donned on me: what if I'm _not_ dreaming? I started to hyperventilate.

"Natalie, are you alright?" Chiron and Luke said in unison.

"This… isn't… a… dream?" I screeched.

They gave me funny looks and Chiron said, "Of course not. What did you think?"

"Well if you haven't noticed, none of this is normal stuff. I _thought_ it was a dream like any sane person would!" I was really hyperventilating now. My brain was whirring in fast motion, unable to process the information that I had thought was fake.

Then, I did the craziest thing. I jumped out the window to run home. My feet pounded on the grass, and carried me as fast as they could.

"Stop her!" Chiron yelled.

I was panting as I crossed over the camp's boundary line. Nothing could stop me. My lungs pumped air in and out as I ran for what seemed like miles, before I heard footsteps steadily approaching me. So, I picked up the pace.

"Natalie, wait!" a few voices yelled. Oh crud, it was Nico, Percy, Clarisse, and Annabeth.

"Go away!" I yelled.

"No!" Nico yelled back. A strong pair of arms wrapped around my torso, lifting me off the ground. I kicked and scratched at the arms, but they held strong.

"Let me go!" I yelped. "I don't want to be a demigod! I just want to go home and live like a normal kid," I screamed, tears running down my cheeks.

"Shh, it's okay. We've all been through it." So it was Clarisse that wouldn't let go of me. Great, that meant I had no chance of escaping.

"Please, let me go home," I cried. "I want my mom."

Clarisse carried me as I cried, all the way back to camp. I'd have some questions for them later, now that I knew this wasn't a dream. I cried into her shoulder, soaking it in the process. She patted me on the back and told me multiple times "It's going to be okay," and "Everything's okay" to calm me, but nothing could do that right now.

Through bleary eyes I could see a tall pine tree: Thalia's tree.

I rested my head on Clarisse's shoulder and fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**So, It's been kinda hard trying to get a chapter out for each of my stories daily, so I'm just going to put out one chapter a day. It might be in my Twilight fanfic, or it might be in my PJatO one. ENJOY!

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I cried for what seemed like days out of the pure shock. You know when you wake up from an absolutely horrible nightmare, and you almost scream your socks off thinking that it's real? This was a thousand times worse. Try having your brain ripped out of your head, used as a football, ran over by a truck, and then was put back into your head. That would be an accurate description for this.

Running away (again) obviously wasn't an option, and apparently it isn't easy for a demigod to kill themselves. So I did the logical thing: I locked myself in the Hades cabin and cried. Nico sorta hovered nervously like he had never seen a girl cry before, and didn't know how to comfort me. He finally gave up and went to get Annabeth to get me to stop crying.

She did a good job of it too. She pulled out her shiny silver laptop and pulled up Charlie the Unicorn on YouTube. (My secret weakness)

"Thanks Annabeth. You're a lot better than Nico at making someone feel better," I sniffled.

"Hey!" Nico complained. "I'm not _that_ bad!"

Annabeth and I rolled our eyes. She told me to get some sleep, and that she'd see me later. After she left, I sat there in silence. Then I remembered Luke. So I did what I wanted to do: I snuck out to go to the Big House to see him. Poor guy, he was probably all alone.

I knocked on the door to the Big House and waited patiently for Chiron to answer the door. I shuddered, now knowing that centaurs were real. I could hear clopping on the other side of the door, and the door knob turned, revealing Chiron.

"Hi Chiron, can I see Luke?" I asked. I was pretty sure that my eyes were still red and swollen, but I really didn't care.

"Sure Natalie. He's upstairs, third door on the left."

"Thanks," I said, walking up the stairs. I knocked on the door (which according to Chiron was Luke's room, I hope that I had counted right) to be polite. I didn't want to barge in on him changing or anything.

"Who is it?" he said.

"Natalie," I said loud enough for him to hear.

"Oh," he said. He opened up the door and widely smiled at me. "Hey, what are you doing here so late?"

"I didn't want to sit around my cabin, and I thought you might be lonely, so I decided to stop by to see how you're doing." He moved aside to let me in, and I sat on his bed. He plopped down next to me so we could talk.

And we did. I won't tell you _everything_ that we talked about, because we talked for hours. It was easy with him: he was nice, funny, calm, and he wasn't shy.

"So what about that jerk you were dating? Uh what's his name… Trevor," he asked.

"I don't know. He didn't stop by to see me in the past few days, so I don't know if he's avoiding me or what. But I don't care about him anymore, he obviously doesn't care about me either," I sighed.

There was an awkward silence between us. He patted me on the back sympathetically and said, "It's okay. He doesn't deserve you, you're too good for him."

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Luke. That's really sweet of you."

He blushed. "Aw, it's nothing but the truth."

I flopped backwards on the bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to make pictures out of the cracks.

"What are you thinking?" he asked me, lying down next to me, also staring up at the roof.

"I'm not thinking anything right now. What about you?" I asked, snapping out of my momentary trance.

"I'm thinking that it's already eleven fifteen at night, and that the harpies were let out an hour ago. If you tried to go back to your cabin, you'll get hurt. I don't know how much I actually believe that the harpies would eat you, but they could hurt you."

"Well then," I said, kicking off my shoes. "I'll just have to stay here tonight then, won't I."

He smiled at me and replied, "I guess you will."

Luke slept on the ground (out of common courtesy) and let me sleep on the bed. I would have slept in another room, but apparently this was the only room that was open, and the rest were being used for storage. For once, I slept a peaceful, dreamless sleep. And even better, I didn't think once of Trevor or Alexis.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, sorry if I've missed a few days. I've been at the beach for the past few days and I haven't had time to write or do much anything at all. I'll put out stories when I can this summer, but I'm uber busy. :-)

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I opened my eyes and tried to remember last night. My blond brain doesn't work as quickly as it could, so it took me a minute. I looked down and saw Luke sleeping peacefully in his sleeping bag.

_He's so cute!_ Ugh, me and my thoughts.

I yawned and sat up. Somewhere outside, the conch horn blew, telling all of the campers it was breakfast. So it was nine o'clock: that's when we ate breakfast. Luke turned over, rubbed his eyes and widely yawned.

"Good morning," I said, sliding out of bed.

"Good morning to you too. How long have you been up?"

"About five seconds. It's breakfast time, get up sleepy head." He slowly got up and walked with me downstairs.

He wouldn't go out the door. "Uh Natalie, I can't go out to breakfast… too many people hate me."

"Then we can disguise you." I scavenged around, and found a baseball cap and a black hoodie lying around. It worked perfectly so no one could see his face. "Now you're good to go! You can eat at mine and Nico's table. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Thanks Natalie, you're a lifesaver," he said, widely grinning. He pulled the cap down a little lower, so you couldn't see his face even one bit from any angle. Through the doorway you could see that people had already started eating, and were currently making their sacrifices to the gods.

I grabbed Luke by the wrist and towed him towards the eating area, sticking to the sides so we were hidden as much as possible. But of course, heads still turned our way. Nico didn't bother to look up from his bowl of Fruit Loops when we walked his way.

We sat down and the dryads brought us our breakfast. After Luke and I got up and sacrificed part of our breakfasts, we were finally able to eat in peace.

"So who's your friend?" Nico asked quietly.

"Uh…" I trailed off, looking at Luke to explain.

Nico stared at Luke for a minute. "You're the infamous Luke Castellan. I _knew_ I sensed a disturbance in the underworld. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you're alive. That's your business."

"Thanks Nico," Luke and I sighed in relief. Luke was obviously happy that he could live peacefully at camp, and to be honest, I was too.

I could see Trevor staring open-mouthed at me over my goblet of orange juice, and Alexis doing the same. I smugly smiled to myself, knowing that I didn't care what they thought any more.

After breakfast, my first class was sword fighting with Ares cabin, Athena cabin, Hermes cabin, and Poseidon cabin.

Luke and I walked straight up to Chiron and Mr. D and asked if Luke could stay in his "disguise" all day and do some classes. Thank the gods, he said yes. Luke was beyond ecstatic; he _loved_ sword fighting.

Luke, Nico and I talked for a minute before going to sword fighting class to decide what his fake name should be. We decided on Lucas, which was close enough to his real name. Class had already started when we got there. Nico sat closer to the back of the sword fighting arena, and signaled for us to come sit with him.

We scurried as quietly as we could towards where Nico was, but Percy stopped us. "Not so fast, people who come in late get to be my partner. Now, which one of you want to go first?"

"I will," Luke/Lucas said. Oh, I forgot to tell you: Mr. D had magically made Luke's voice sound ever so slightly different. It was just a tad lower.

"Alright! May I ask for your name?"

"My name's Lucas, I'm new here."

Percy nodded. "I guessed, seeing as I've never seen you around here before. Since you're new, I'll _try_ to take it easy on you. No promises though," he said, flashing a mischievous grin.

From what I had heard of Luke, he was an amazing sword fighter. Even better then Percy. I couldn't wait to see who won this fight…

I plopped down next to Nico to watch. Trevor sat on the opposite side of the arena by the Hermes kids.

"Who do you think will win?" I whispered to Nico.

"Luke of course," he scoffed.

I watched them fight and oh my gods, Luke is really good! He whacked this and that, twirled his sword skillfully, and ended up making Percy's sword clatter to the ground. Percy gaped at him and murmured, "Beginner's luck."

I quietly giggled. According to Luke, that had been the words that he had said to describe Percy's "luck" with a sword when they had first fought. A coincidence that Percy had said the same thing? Maybe.

I could see Luke smirk under the shadow of his hat. Percy insisted that they tried again, so they did. And yet again, Luke won. Percy's face turned red, whether from embarrassment or from anger, I don't know. He muttered something to himself that I couldn't hear, and Luke sat down next to me.

"Wait to go at blending in," I hissed to him.

He smiled and said, "I couldn't resist."

The rest of the day people would come by and pat him on the back and comment on him beating Percy in sword fighting. It really wasn't all that big when you look at it, but I think that Luke enjoyed the lime light. I just rolled my eyes at him and told him that he was letting fame get to his head.

**I'll continue next time. Enjoy!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hmm... Yes, I know, I have writer's block. If you have any ideas on how the story should go, feel free to tell me. Although, I will _not_ mix stories. I would love to make a Percy Jackson meets Twilight world someday, but not today. Enjoy!

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Oh. My. Gods. Luke can be really_ horribly_ annoying. He went on and on and on about how good he was at sword fighting. That was until I picked up a sword and whooped his butt. He insisted that it was sheer dumb luck, but what he didn't know was that as a child I had taken fencing lessons. It was close enough to actual sword fighting, so I had the advantage on my side.

We crashed in my cabin after lunch. Well, Luke crashed and I read a book on Greek mythology. Thank goodness, it was already in Greek, so I didn't have too much of a dyslexic problem with it. I woke Luke up half an hour later, when he started tossing and turning in his sleep, moaning about a tree.

_Why is he dreaming about a tree?_ I silently wondered to myself.

I shook his shoulder lightly, and his eyes fluttered open. "Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said, rubbing his eyes. "Just dreaming about an old friend."

I felt a twang of jealousy in my stomach, but I ignored it. Why should I feel jealous? Luke was just a friend, and that's all he ever would be. I smiled at him and helped him get up. I ended up falling backwards and hit my head on one of the foot lockers. I yelped in pain, and little stars danced across my vision.

"Natalie!" he said, kneeling down to see if I was okay. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head to clear the stars from my vision. "I just pass out sometimes. It's a problem I have. Nothing big." My hand slid onto the back of my head, and it was warm and sticky. "Aw crud," I moaned.

"What?" he asked, looking mildly concerned.

"I'm bleeding." He put his cap on and pulled his hood up over it, then picked me up lightly, like I weighed no more than a sack of feathers. "Where are you taking me," I asked him.

"I'm taking you to get your head checked. It looks like your stitches split open."

"No," I said, weakly pushing him. "I don't want to get them checked. I'm fine. Put me down."

He continued to carry me to the big house as I feebly pushed at him and complained. Nico ran up beside us, "What happened?" he asked.

"I fell and hit my head and split my stitches open. Tell Luke to set me down!" I whined.

"She needs to get her head checked," Luke said.

"I agree with Luke, Natalie. You need to get your head checked," Nico said. Geez, everyone was against me today. I stopped fighting him and went limp in his arms. He kicked open the front door of the Big House and carried me inside.

Chiron was eating a tuna sandwich, and looked up when we came in. "What happened?" he asked.

"Natalie fell backwards and hit her head. Her stitches were split open," Luke said. Nico fiddled his thumbs nervously, and Luke brought me back into the hospital room and laid me down on an empty cot. Chiron lightly probed the back of my head, and the room spun in circles.

"She's losing a lot of blood," Chiron said.

_Well then do something!_ I thought angrily.

He stitched my head back up and gave me a pill that dulled the pain. Sadly, one of the side effects was extreme drowsiness. Stupid godly pills…

I woke up with a massive head ache. A light was shined in my right eye first, then my left eye. "Ow, turn out the light," I moaned, swatting at the light.

"She's certainly awake," Chiron's voice said quietly.

"Well no duh. I need some water please," I said grumpily. My throat felt super dry.

A big glass was handed to me and I thirstily gulped the contents down. But this wasn't water. No, it was my mom's sticky cinnamon rolls. But it was liquid. I almost spewed out the liquid in shock. "What is this?" I gasped.

"Nectar," Luke said. Oh, I hadn't known that he was here. "It tastes like the food you like the most." I stared at the glass in confusion and downed the rest of the nectar.

"That was good, but I think I like the solid version better," I said, sitting up. Oops, too quick. The room started spinning again, so I put out a hand to steady myself. Luke put a hand on my back to make sure I didn't fall… again. "Thanks."

He shushed me and gave me what looked like a brownie square, but I wasn't so sure. It tasted sort of like cinnamon and chocolate. "What's this?" I asked.

"Ambrosia. If you eat too much you'll burn up and die," Chiron said.

I stared at him. "Uh, die?"

He nodded. I swallowed my last mouthful and set the ambrosia down. Dying didn't sound so good to me. They told me that I could go back to my cabin if I wanted, or I could stay here tonight. I decided it would be nice to stay in my cabin for once since I got here. Luke walked me back to my cabin and we said goodnight to each other, and I fell asleep for what felt like the millionth time today.


	8. Chapter 8

I narrowly ducked a flaming arrow, crouching behind a fallen tree. Monsters were attacking camp like crazy, for absolutely no reason. That I know of, that it. Luke had gone out for the day to see his mom, I hope he's okay. Nico squatted next to me, and Percy kicked monster butt. Annabeth was in charge of getting some of the newer campers to safety, so Trevor, Alexis, and several other newbies had fled to safety. Currently, a fifty-foot tall hydra was spitting flames in every direction, scorching everything in sight. Poor Percy, he was in charge of keeping the tree dryads alive by dousing flames every so often, _and_ killing the monster.

I yanked out my sword which I had scavenged out of the burning forge, and snuck behind the hydra. I hopped onto the back of one of the further out heads and waved my hands above my head, trying to catch the attention of the flame-spewing head. "Hey, over here!"

It turned its big ugly head towards me and let out a jet of fire. I cut off the head the I was on just as the fire hit it, scorching the stump so it wouldn't grow back.

"Nice one Nat," Nico yelled. He stabbed underneath the creature, cutting its gut open, spilling out green monster goo. This monster was weird, no matter how many times you stabbed it, it wouldn't burst into dust. But the funny part: it sparkled! But sadly, it was really hard to laugh at the vampire-hydra when it was about to kill you.

I jumped down and was about to do the same maneuver I had just done to another head, when the hydra's big scaly foot came down on me. Its nail cut straight through my armor and cut the scarred half of my body wide open. I screamed a horrible blood-curling scream, my back arching in pain. The ground trembled around me.

"Natalie, concentrate on killing the monster!" Nico yelled. I put all the focus I could muster into the ground swallowing up the monster, and that's exactly what happened. The hydra disappeared into the scorched ground, hopefully never to be seen again.

I gasped in pain, trying to bring air into my almost-crushed lungs. I could feel several ribs shifting around in my chest, and the whole left side of my body burning and aching in pain. I swear, all the left side of me was broken. I could hear heavy breathing above me, so there were probably people around me.

"What happened?" Percy asked.

Fingers poked at my body, quickly examining me, and when they got to the left side of me I screamed in pain.

"The left side of her body's broken," an unknown voice said. Hmm… Apollo kid maybe?

"Can you heal her?" Nico asked worriedly.

"No, her damage is too severe. Not even Apollo could heal her. We need to brace her up and get her some ambrosia and nectar, pronto."

I was lifted up and carried to who-knows-where. How many times have I gotten hurt now? Three? Four times? Eh, I've lost count.

Next thing I knew, I was in a huge cloudy room.

_Where am I?_ I said, but it was more like a thought.

_You're lucky that we wanted to save you, young demigod._

Whoa, who said that? I twisted my head around and saw that there were three gods sitting on their massive thrones. There was a man with dark hair and pasty white skin who I think was Hades; a guy who looked a _lot_ like Luke who I'm pretty sure is Apollo counting on his glowing skin and bright smile; and a man in a running suit with winged sandals, a twisted caduceus, and salt-and-pepper hair who I'm absolutely sure is Hermes.

_Why did you save me?_

_You're very brave. We saw no reason that you should die so young, when you could be of great use to us, Natalie._ Apollo said, almost in a sing-song tone. _And you'll find that when you come back to reality, you won't be hurt anymore. Compliments of me._

_Thank you, Lord Apollo_. I said.

_My daughter, you have done well. But there will be many more things ahead of you. This is just the start. Stay strong, and watch your back._ Hades said. I nodded to him and thanked him.

_Natalie,_ Hermes started. _Protect my son. He might look strong on the outside, but he's gone through more than you can imagine. He's not as brave as he could be, but when you're around him… he's better._ I could imagine that I was blushing right now. _Help him make good choices._

The room went all blurry, and then I was back in the hospital room… again. Percy, Nico, Annabeth, Grover, and Luke sat around me. (Luke was in disguise of course)

"Hey guys," I said. My voice was hoarse. Ew. Nico handed me a glass of nectar, and I quickly drank it all. "Thanks. How long was I out this time?"

"Just a day." I nodded. That wasn't _too_ bad compared to how long I've been out before. Then I noticed: the room wasn't a pile of ashes from the hydra attack. I guess they had already rebuilt it. I told them about what the gods had told me, leaving out the part that Hermes had talked to me about Luke.

"What did dad mean by 'it's just the start'?" Nico asked, running his hand through his hair.

I shrugged. Percy and Annabeth looked at each other worriedly, probably thinking that Kronos was coming back. They left, and told me to get some sleep. Luke stayed though.

"Natalie, what did you leave out?"

"Nothing," I said, hoping that I would start blushing. How did he know that I left something out?

He stared at me curiously at me for a minute, then said goodnight and left.

After I fell asleep, I dreamed. In my dream, I could see a huge man struggling to hold up a huge rock. No, it wasn't a rock, it was the sky! He bellowed in pain, and shrunk into a kneeling position. It was like the sky was getting heavier.

Then, the sky grew an arm and reached for the earth, which also grew an arm.

I awoke with a start.

"Oh my gods, Gaea and Uranus are the caus of all this!"

**Ooh, nice twist, right? No one expected this! HAHAH!**


	9. Chapter 9

Of course I told Chiron my theory right away. He was super quiet for a while, and then told me to go get the head councilors from each cabin. After running around to every single cabin (I was ready for a nap by this point) and then returning to the Big House, we sat down for a serious talk about what was going on. Chiron had me stand up and re-tell my theory, and my dream.

They had the same reaction as Chiron: silence.

Percy broke the silence. "So what do we do? We wouldn't stand a chance against Uranus and Gaea."

"We fight. _How_ we fight is the problem," Annabeth answered.

Some Demeter kid started ranting about how we "couldn't hurt the earth" and blah blah blah. I purposely drifted out when Joe (That was the Demeter kid) wouldn't shut up. It got to a point where he was overly-annoying, so I stared at him really hard, until he shut up.

"Thank the gods," I muttered.

Clarisse and Nico snickered at my comment.

"How can we communicate with them?" I asked.

"That is a good question. We should ask the gods. I'll schedule a meeting with them up in Olympus immediately," Chiron said, galloping off to make an appointment. I think it's funny that he had to make an appointment with his own siblings.

I got the weirdest feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around and sure enough, Luke was silently watching from behind a pillar. I smiled at him, and he waved and then put a finger to his lips, silently telling me not to say anything. I nodded back at him and turned back to the meeting/war planning.

What I heard was that we would be going to Olympus for a mass meeting in a week. All the gods (all of the major _and_ minor gods were coming) would be there for the meeting. On the godly level, it was code red. Since I had had the dream, I would be pretty much at the head of the meeting. Great.

"And that's it?" I asked. I was starting to get tired of all the action. Was there never a down day around here?

"Yup, that's it," Percy said.

"Lovely," I sighed. Chiron told us we could go. I lazily walked out to the forest. It was a good shady place to take a nap since half of the cabins were being re-built. I had been walking in the dark forest for about five minutes when a big pair of hands wrapped themselves over my eyes.

"Guess who?" a deep voice said.

"Hey Luke." I knew his voice all too well now.

"Aw darn, ya got me. Where are you going?"

"To take a nap. Ya wanna come?"

"Sure. Napping is always nice."

We chatted about what might happen at the meeting as we walked. He probably thought we were heading to some random space, but I had a destination mapped. I had found a little open meadow in the middle of the forest when I had come out here by myself. We finally got there.

It was a grassy little meadow sprinkled with occasional rocks, and little white and purple flowers grew everywhere. Sunlight filtered in through the branches of trees, shining on the dewy grass, making it sparkle. It somewhat reminded me of Edward's meadow in Twilight.

"So what do you think?" I asked him.

He stared open-mouthed at the small space and said, "It's beautiful. When did you find this? I've been here for years and never found anything like this."

"I just… found it. Nothing special."

I found a plush-looking rock **(A/N: like a rock could ever be plush!) **and laid down, using it as a pillow. Luke laid down next to me. I stared up at the sky, and let the sun make my vision go all weird.

"So are you ever going to tell me what you left out?"

Oh gods, he was talking about my dream. Should I tell him? I decided I would.

"Your dad told me to make sure you don't get into any trouble." So _maybe_ I made it sound better, but bending the words a little bit wouldn't hurt him… or me.

"He told you that?" He blushed.

"Yeah. He really cares about you, you know."

He didn't say anything for a while. I had assumed he had fallen asleep, but then he said, "Yeah. I've heard."

I turned my head to the side to look at him. The sunlight made his scar look warm, and not so harsh. If he was Edward, he'd be sparkling right now. **(A/N: Sorry for all the Twilight comments, I just saw Eclipse and I'm going all Team Edward on everyone.)**

Somewhere in my oblivious staring, I fell asleep.

"Ten more minutes," I moaned.

"Noo, wake up! Let's go back, it's getting dark," Luke said, shaking my shoulder.

"Carry me," I groaned, holding out my arms.

He chuckled and lifted me up, slinging me over his shoulder. "_Oof_," I grunted.

He ran through the forest, twisting around trees, until we came to the edge of the forest where we could see the sun setting. I could just see the edge of the group of cabins. He waltzed towards the dinner pavilion where people were just lining up for dinner, and plopped me down on the grass, panting.

"One ride, on the house."

A few people stared at us, but we just laughed. A loud round of cheers came from the hill. I looked over to see a girl with bright red hair walking over the boundary line with what looked like a duffel bag that had been in the middle of a paint ball fight.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Rachel, she's the oracle," Luke responded, rubbing his eye tenderly. **(A/N: BLUE PLASTIC HAIRBRUSH OF DOOM!)**

Nico ran up behind us and lugged us towards the boundary line, where almost everyone was greeting this Rachel kid.

She was currently hugging Percy when I got up to the top of the hill. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth mini-fuming. Percy blushed, and I giggled.

Rachel turned towards us, probably to see who had laughed. Luke pulled his hood further down on his face and stepped behind me.

She smiled at Nico and greeted him, then turned facing me.

I smiled and held out a hand. "Hey, I'm Natalie. Nico's sister."

She smiled back at me and shook my hand. "I'm Rachel."

"I know, I've heard all about you."

Nico coughed. He had told me a lot about her, and I thought he had a crush on her. But alas, she was the oracle so she had to stay a maiden forever.

**I'll tell you about our little meet-and-greet later!**


	10. Chapter 10

I made the mistake of asking her if I could help her move into the big house. Her eyes started glowing a bright neon green, and smoke poured out of her mouth. Campers backed up and gasped, and Rachel's voice came out raspy. She said:

"_When the dead will rise again,  
Five campers will set out to answer the plea.  
They will find what has been stolen,  
By the dark; the lonely; the fallen.  
In the end, the champions will find,  
That one they trusted, is not who they thought._"

The last line made my blood turn cold. I understood the first line easily, that was Luke. Six campers, well, six campers. The third line sounded confusing, but obviously meant something had been stolen. The fourth line sounded a lot like Kronos, but I certainly hoped that he wasn't alive again. The fifth line was just sort of a filler. The sixth line… that sounded like Luke's secret. I hoped it just meant that it was an identity crisis, and not a betrayal-issue.

I caught Rachel before she could pass out and hit her head. Nico grabbed her from me and tenderly fanned her face. "Rachel, are you okay?"

She rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just getting the hang of the whole prophecy thing. What did I say?"

I repeated the lines for her.

"Well Natalie, it would seem that this is your quest. It just so happens that this object has been stolen very recently. I may as well say it in front of all of you since it would get out anyways. Hades's helm of darkness, Poseidon's trident, and Zeus's master bolt have been stolen."

"Not again," Percy moaned. That's right; Hades's helm and Zeus's bolt had been stolen before.

"Natalie, you may decide who will come on your quest with you. You will choose four other campers to accompany you."

Well, I pretty much knew who I wanted to bring with me. "Can I choose now?"

He nodded.

"Then I choose Nico, Percy, Annabeth, and Lucas." I could see Luke smiling beneath his hood. This was his chance to redeem himself since his last quest. He could make his dad proud.

"The four of you will need to start preparing immediately. You will make your first stop to see Atlas, where Gaia and Uranus are the closest. You will go tomorrow."

We all separated and headed back to our cabins. Luke followed me. Nico had gone with Rachel to help her set up in her room in the attic of the Big House.

"You want me to come?"

"Of course I do! You're the best swordfighter I know, you're super brave, and I'm pretty sure the last line of the prophecy applied to you."

"Yeah, I picked that up too. I'm not so happy about it either. But I'm going to go to my dad when we're in Olympus to ask him to change my face… just for a while."

I frowned. I liked his face just how it was, I wouldn't want it some other way. "Yeah… sure… that's fine." I took a glance at his face for what could be one of the last times and invited him into my cabin.

He took a perch on the top bunk of my bunk bed, and I jumped into the bottom of the bunk bed.

"Do you think we have any chance?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I think we do. We always have to believe that there's hope, because if we didn't, then what would we do?"

"I don't know. But I don't know how we'll do this…"

He hung his head down so he could see me. "We'll do it somehow. Don't worry, we're here for each other. We're family."

He had said that before, to Annabeth and Thalia. Then he left them. But somehow, these words felt safe to me, like he really meant them. I believed him.

I smiled at him. "Okay, you'd know best. But still… I'm scared to be perfectly honest."

"Natalie, don't worry. You're safe." His voice grew quieter, and I'm pretty sure he fell asleep. I peeked my head up into the top bunk. Yup, he's asleep.

I took the opportunity to go and shower. I grabbed my shampoo, conditioner, a spare change of clothes, and my towel, and then headed down to the bathrooms which were by the Big House. I undressed and hopped into the steaming hot shower, and just let the water run down my back. I quickly shampooed and conditioned then rinsed my hair out, dried myself off, and changed back into my clothes before brushing my teeth and heading back to my cabin.

To my surprise, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Clarisse, Nico, and Rachel were all sitting in my room. Luke was still asleep on the top bunk.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here at…" I checked my watch. "Nine at night?"

"We came to discuss leaving for the quest tomorrow, but you weren't here."

"Well I am now, so what do you want to discuss?"

"What time we leave. We were thinking around noon so we could be at the Empire State Building by one. Is that good?"

I nodded. We talked for a while longer, until Luke's snoring got loud. Then, they left for the night. (Before the harpies were let out) I then pillow-attacked Luke.

"Why do you snore so loud?" Ah, my stinking bipolar-ness.

He woke up and decided he'd pillow-clobber me back. "I don't know, why are you blond?"

I whapped him on the head with my pillow. "Touché!" Nico just sat there and watched as we beat each other up with pillows. I collapsed onto my bed panting.

"Sorry," I panted. "I'm slightly bipolar. I randomly do stuff like that sometimes."

"That's okay; I do stuff like that too." Luke said, laying down on the ground. "Hey, can I stay in here tonight?"

"Sure. Nico, that's okay with you, right?"

"Yup. Luke can stay in here if he wants, as long as you two aren't up all night beating each other up."

"Okay." The three of us started packing our bags, then fell asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Chiron woke us up at seven o'clock on the spot in the morning, telling us to get our stuff and get ready to go to Olympus for our meeting. Luke helped me carry my bags to the vans, where Argus was waiting. We went down and quickly grabbed breakfast (egg burritos), and then returned to the van. Somehow, Percy, Nico, and Annabeth had beat us back to the van.

"Ready to go?" Percy asked.

"Yup, let's go," I said, hopping into the van. I never noticed how creepy Argus's eyes were, until all hundred of them were staring at us from the back of his head and neck. I held back a shudder and bit into my burrito. Luke slid in next to me, and Nico, Annabeth, and Percy sat in front of us.

It took approximately twenty minutes to get to the Empire State Building. "How do you get up there? I don't think that there are six hundred floors…"

"There's a guy at the security desk and you have to get a key from him to go up in a special elevator."

That gave me an idea. "Can we joke around for a few with the security desk person?"

"Uh… sure?"

I smirked to myself and ran inside to bug the desk guy. This would have to replace bugging those Buckingham Palace guard guys who don't react to anything you do. I walked right up to him and said, "Hello sir, I would like to go to the six-hundredth floor."

He gave me a weird look. "Very funny kid, but there isn't a six-hundredth floor."

I frowned, and burst into fake tears. I took acting lessons as a kid, and one of the first lessons I learned was how to fake cry. He looked quite alarmed, and my fake tears turned into laughing tears.

"You security guards make me laugh. But seriously, we have an audience with Zeus."

"Name?" he asked.

"Natalie Guthrie, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico DiAngelo, and uh, Luke Castellan." He gave me a look on Luke's name, and passed me a security key for the elevator.

"Make sure no mortals are in the elevator with you when you go up, put the key in the key slot, and a button will pop out. Press it. Good luck, miss." He winked at me and turned back to his computer to do his work.

"Thanks." I turned back around and headed over to the elevator where everyone was waiting for me. I pressed the button that opened up the elevator and stepped in, and after everyone else had gotten themselves and their bags in, I closed the door and put the key in the slot, revealing a small button which I pushed. The elevator started moving upwards normally, but it kept going for at least five minutes. When I thought all hope of not listening to tacky music was lost, the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

Olympus was beautiful. It was like we were walking on clouds, and we literally were. It was scary, but extremely cool at the same time. Although, I _could_ have appreciated it if I wasn't afraid of heights. Instead, I clung to Nico like my life depended on it. In my world, it probably did. He patted me on the back and egged me forward.

After several excruciating minutes of walking six _hundred_ feet above ground level, we finally got to the main Olympus building… or whatever it's called. The building was huge. And I don't mean _just_ huge, I mean huge beyond your imagination huge. And even scarier, there were thirteen gods prancing around twenty feet tall, and fighting loudly with each other. My head spun in fright, and I was now scared that I'd get crushed by a god. That would be a horrible way to die, right after getting trampled by a hoard of hippocampi.

We stood there patiently for about ten seconds before Athena noticed us and calmed everyone down, and then invited us in to talk about what we came here to talk about.

I explained about my dream (The one with Gaea and Uranus) and then about the quest I was given by Rachel/the Oracle, and that we knew that Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus had lost their possessions.

The gods exchanged a look, and Zeus said, "That is correct. But very recently, another thing has gone missing. Hestia is missing."

"I knew it!" Nico exclaimed. I stared at him. "She's been gone from camp for days, if no one noticed. I tried to Iris message her, but it said the signal was disconnected."

"Well if it's Gaea and Uranus behind all of this, I'd think that Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, and Demeter all need to take precautions. Since Hestia went missing, I'd think that eventually you'll all disappear, going in order of age. Hestia was the oldest, so who was next?"

"I was," Demeter said. "The order was: Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Hades, and then little Zeus."

Zeus winced at the comment of "Little Zeus".

"Then we are all in danger. We will need you young demigods to bring back our possessions quickly, so if this turns into battle, we will be prepared," Poseidon said.

"Psh, the likelihood is that it _will_ turn into battle, you're up against your own parents here for heaven's sake! And sorry to say, but the Titans are going to have to take sides in this. For all we know, they might end up taking your side; I don't think they want the world crushed by their parents either," Percy said, acting like his cocky old self.

I saw Hermes staring happily at his son, and I couldn't help but smile. I hope Luke could see it too.

All of a sudden, grinding noises came from the roof of the enormous room, and the ceiling dropped small pieces of marble on us. "And it looks like Uranus isn't too happy either," I said, covering my head with my hands.

Zeus ended the meeting, but we stayed an extra minute talking while Hermes and Apollo worked on changing Luke's appearance. He came back out with bright curly red hair that shimmered golden, light porcelain skin (with _no_ scar), and his eyes had been changed to a sparkling shade of emerald green. In my opinion, he resembled a god. Luke hugged his dad goodbye, and we set out on our quest to save the world.


	12. Chapter 12

**Holy crap, I didn't know that being gone for 2 1/2 weeks would leave my email inbox so bloated... 175 unread messages and more than half of them were from this site! Sheesh! But here ya go, I'm back... enjoy!

* * *

**

I felt slightly hurt that my own father hadn't taken the time to come over and say hello to me. But I guess I understand, he _was _a god; why should he have time for his own kids? Oh that's right, because he's our _dad_. I tried to calm my fuming thoughts by studying Luke's new features, and I must say, he wasn't as cute as he was before.

We fled Olympus, knowing that it might not stand for much longer if the sky was fighting against it, and headed for the first lost item; Poseidon's trident, and it was somewhere near one of the various closed-entrances to the labyrinth. Even though the labyrinth had collapsed, the entrances were still right where they had been before. When they described to me what the entrances looked like, I knew what they were talking about. I felt stupid that I had seen them so many times in my life and never recognized them. But then again, I didn't know about the whole Greek Gods thing.

The location of Hades' helm was at the same water park that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had gone to on Percy's first quest (I'm sure that'd bring back some memories for Percy and Annabeth), and Zeus' master bolt was in the worst place possible; it was hidden in Tartarus. How we would get that one back, I don't know, but it would be the biggest task of them all. **(A/N: I didn't put Grover on the quest because according to me, he is out being the king of the wild. So all of you Grover lovers, don't shoot me!)**

We immediately headed out towards the strawberry van, only to find that it was gone.

"What the Hades?" Annabeth exclaimed.

"It's gone," I whispered.

"But why would Argus leave? It's not like he'd leave the gods side for the other side… would he?"

An old Greek mythology lesson came flooding back to me. "He would. He already holds a grudge against Hermes." I saw Luke wince. "Here's why: When Zeus went out and had one of many affairs with a girl named Io," thunder rumbled, "Hera got very mad. She came to confront the girl, and Zeus turned her into a cow to protect her from Hera. Hera took the cow and tied her to a tree so she couldn't leave, and then set Argus in front of the tree to make sure that Io couldn't get away. Zeus felt bad, and sent Hermes to kill Argus. Now, knowing that Argus has over a hundred eyes, none of them would ever be shut all at once. Even when he was asleep, dozens of his eyes would stay open. If all of his eyes were shut at once, he was dead. Hermes played the lyre he got from Apollo to Argus, until all of Argus's eyes closed. Hermes killed Argus. Hera was furious, and changed Argus's eyes into the peacock's tail feathers. That's why Argus is mad at the gods; because Hermes killed him."

They were silent, until Percy said, "Wow, I never knew that. No wonder he never seemed too partial to the Hermes kids. So how are we supposed to get there?"

"We walk."

"All the way to that water park? Where was that…? Oh yeah, Illinois. Maybe we can take a Greyhound bus."

Annabeth pulled out her phone and made the arrangement for a Greyhound bus to come pick us up in fifteen minutes. **(A/N: Sorry if this isn't how you can get on a Greyhound bus, but they don't have Greyhounds in southern California. Or taxis. Sorry!) **We basically sat in silence, processing that Argus had turned on us. I think it was worse of a shock for Annabeth and Percy, because Nico and I hadn't known him nearly as long.

Fifteen minutes later, a Greyhound bus pulled up in front of us, and we lugged our small backpacks in with us, and took our seats near to the back of the bus. Nico fell asleep pretty quickly in the bus. **(A/N: I just noticed that my OC Natalie is older than Nico. Let's see, if in the Titans Curse Percy was fourteen, Nico was eleven… so Percy is three years older than Nico, and in this he's seventeen and Nico's thirteen, so dang! Natalie's three years older than Nico! Wow… well actually, Nico and Bianca were stuck in the Lotus hotel and casino for like, eighty years, so technically Nico's older than Natalie and every other camper. I'm confused… anyone wish to clear this up?)**

Luke fell asleep in the seat next to me, and I'm pretty sure that Annabeth and Percy were sucking face in the seats behind us. I ever so subtly tried to hold back gag. Scratch that; I just tried not to puke. I think they noticed after we'd been driving for a while that my face had turned green at the sound of their make-out-session, and they stopped… for a while.

"No, don't," Luke muttered in his sleep. "Please don't hurt them; it's my fault, not theirs. I paid the price, let them go," he moaned. He looked like he was in pain. I watched him intently, as I had nothing else, or better to do.

His mindless rambling was replaced by Nico's snoring. I slightly considered throwing my backpack at him just to shut him up, but I decided it would be rude.

I stared out the window as the scenery zoomed by. I could have sworn that once or twice I'd see something like a centaur or a dryad, but none of the mortals around us seemed to notice. Instead of calling them mortals, I decided I'd call them muggles. Being a Harry Potter geek, it worked for me. And plus, calling them mortals was sort of boring. Not that anything else in the world of Greek mythology was boring, though. I could see a thunderstorm somewhere far off in the distance, but the boom reached my ears easily. Zeus must be mad about something, or maybe he was warning us saying to collect the possessions quickly.

If Zeus can hear me, I assure you of this; I will go to any extent to save the world. I swear of it.

**Hmm, just thought of something. "An oath to keep with a final breath." Sound familiar, eh? That's right, I'm trying **_**everything**_** together. Enjoy, and please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

"Here it is," I said.

We were at the location of Poseidon's trident; the closed entrance to the labyrinth in the middle of the Lincoln memorial, in Washington D.C. (which was waaay too hot and humid). The only problem? The trident was underneath the statue, and we couldn't get it out until night time when the statue's density weakened (blame the mist) and you could move it.

NOT EASY.

"So, uh, how exactly do we get it?" Percy asked, scratching his head in confusion. I told him what I had just went over in my mind.

"That doesn't really make sense… but okay," Luke said in his deep, but still cute, voice.

Annabeth looked like she was having a brain fart. For such a smart girl, I didn't get why she wouldn't get something as simple as a volume explanation. Percy waved his hand in front of her face. "Helloo? Earth to Annabeth."

"Sorry, what?" she said, snapping back to reality.

"Nothing, we just need to occupy ourselves until tonight – midnight. That's when the density lightens up."

The tall marble room started to tremble and groan as a 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked D.C. Tourists screamed and fled down the stairs to solid ground.

"_Leave now and you shall not die," _an ancient voice said clearly in my head.

At first I thought someone had said it directly into my ear, but Luke whispered to me, "It's Uranus. Or Gaia. I can't tell who, but whoever it is, they're speaking directly into your mind."I looked at him quizzically. "I only know this from experience," he said innocently, but I could tell the memory pained him.

A hazy fog-like mist appeared in front of us. From what I knew, this was an Iris message.

Chiron's face popped into view. "What just happened?" he exclaimed.

"Earthquake," Annabeth and I said in harmony. Oh that's right, she lived in California for a while, just like me. I had lived in southern California for a few years when I was younger, and had experienced more than my share of earthquakes.

"Then it must have been Gaia. She is mad, correct?"

"Mhm," I said casually. Pft, a puny earthquake couldn't hurt us.

A mortal mindlessly walked through the Iris message, disconnecting our signal with Chiron.

"Percy," I started. "Isn't Poseidon the god of earthquakes too?"

"Well yeah but… no. No. I _can't_ control the earthquakes that Gaia is causing. Impossible."

"Oh come on," I whined. "Don't be a pansy!"

He frowned at me, but Annabeth giggled. "You sort of _are_ being a pansy, Percy. But an incredibly cute pansy."

That brain fart of hers must have made her loopy, because she started making out with Percy right smack in the middle of the Lincoln memorial – and Percy didn't stop her. Blegh.

A big pair of hands covered my eyes; Luke's hands. "You don't need to see this, Nat."

_Ugh!_ Percy and Annabeth grunted. When Luke uncovered my eyes, Percy and Annabeth were both tenderly rubbing the back of their heads. Nico had a smug smile on his face, so he had probably smacked them on the back of their heads. Suckers!

It was 11:55 p.m., and in precisely five minutes time the statue of Abraham Lincoln would be moveable – but only barely. It would still be at _least_ a whopping five-hundred pounds to move, though.

"How do we do this?" Luke asked me.

"We push it aside. We'll have about ten minutes until it turns back to its original density, and regains its weight. If we don't have the trident out by then, we're doomed… or just losing time."

He nodded. "Easy enough, we just can't lose focus on the quest."

"Tell Percy and Annabeth that; they're sucking face again."

"Again?" Nico groaned.

Three minutes left, and the statue started groaning; the density was lightening quickly, and it disturbed the marble's natural form.

"Someone separate them," I said, and paced over to the statue. I pressed my hand against the statue, finding that it now had the consistency of a rubbery brick. "It's almost ready," I murmured to myself, barely over a whisper.

"Oof!" Percy grunted as he was thrown halfway across the room, and slammed into a wall. "What was that for?"

"_That_ was for being disgusting. _This_," Nico flicked him on the head, "is for being overly obnoxious in front of my sister. You too Annabeth; control yourselves." Ah, there was Nico's age catching up with him. He sometimes acted his age when he was stressed, or too tired. Poor guy.

Annabeth sniffled. "Sorry," she said.

"No time for apologies; we have to move this statue _now_. We have ten minutes."

Annabeth, Luke, Nico, Percy and I gathered on the left side of the statue and pushed as hard as we could, moving the massive statue inch by inch across the spacious marble floor.

"Ugh, it's still heavy!" Nico moaned.

"If you think this is bad, try holding up the sky sometime," Annabeth said.

"It's not _that_ bad…" Luke started, but suddenly stopped, realizing that _Lucas_ had never held up the sky – _Luke_ had.

"What?" Percy and Annabeth said in unison, but kept pushing.

"Later," I stalled. The statue had been moved far enough to see a narrow stairway leading down into darkness. "And there we go, come on!"

I ran ahead, turning my flashlight on so we could see, and ran down a straight tunnel, until it forked off in two directions. Both ends were dark.

"What do we do?" Percy panted.

"Split up," was the simple answer. Percy, Annabeth, and Nico went right, and Luke and I went down the left tunnel. The tunnel went down several steep slopes, and came to a stop. There, shining in front of us, was Poseidon's trident.

"It's shiny," Luke exclaimed.

I smiled. "Yeah, it is. Now let's get it and go!"

I tugged at the glowing trident, only to find that it was stuck deep into the rocks. "It's stuck!"

Luke tugged with me, but it still wouldn't move. I could hear the start of the statue moving back to its original spot in the center of the room – we were almost out of time. When almost all hope was lost, I spotted the glowing blue symbol of Daedelus and pressed it with my foot. The trident released from the ground, and Luke and I ran back the way we came.

The statue was two-thirds of the way over the hole, and closing the gap quickly. "Jump!" I screeched.

We landed on the cold floor, and the statue covered the hole completely, and turned back to stone.

"Nico! Percy! Annabeth! No!" I yelped, pounding my fist on the base of the statue. They were trapped inside. I could hear their muffled yelling from under the statue.

Their yelling died down, but I barely noticed over my crying. Panting sounds came from behind us. Luke and I turned around to see Nico, Percy, and Annabeth collapsed on the ground behind us.

"How'd you guys get out?" I cried, flinging my arms around Nico's neck in a tight hug.

"Shadow traveled," Nico choked, tugging at my arms to loosen the hug. "You got it?"

"Yeah, what was at your end of the tunnel?"

"A collapsed tunnel. Yours?"

"The trident."

No one said anything – they were either too tired, too exhausted, or too confused.

"So what next?" Percy said, breaking the silence.

"Next? To the water park to get my dad's helm back."

Annabeth giggled. Dang her, why did she have to think about her and Percy's past at a time like this?

**So… yeah. It's 9:08 pm here right now and I'm still on western time zone. Not good for me, I woke up at 4:30 am this morning because I was so used to getting up at 7:30 in New York. Grr… But I liked this chapter. It flowed easier than most of the others.**

**And secondly, my chapters might be a bit weird for a while. I'm very busy writing two fan fics and two books – one is Greek mythology related and the other is Norse mythology related, so I'm switching between Greek and Norse so don't blame me if something's out of place. I'm a very busy (by busy I mean grumpy) person, so writing is harder right now.**

**Love y'all!**


	14. Chapter 14

Percy took it to himself to guard his dad's trident. I don't blame him; it _was_ his dad's trident after all. But he and Annabeth kept staring at Luke – wondering about his comment about holding up the sky.

"To the water park, in Iowa," Percy said, shouldering his backpack and heading out to the street outside, where we could flag down a taxi.

A bright yellow taxi pulled over to us. It was one of those mini-van taxis, so we could all cram in. "Where to?" the driver asked. He didn't question why a bunch of minors were out past midnight, at the Lincoln memorial, without an adult with us. Although Nico could technically count as a senior citizen.

"Iowa," I replied.

A look of shock crossed his face. "Iowa? That's another state!"

I took out my wallet and handed him my gold Amax card. "We can cover it," I said quietly. He looked out me, obviously confused at why a sixteen year old would have such an expensive credit card on her. He swiped it to see if it actually worked, and gaped when he saw the total amount on it – more than $100,000,000 on the card, and this was just my plain one. "Now step on it."

"Yes, ma'am."

My demigod friends stared at me as the taxi zoomed along going at least 95 mph.

"I'll tell you later…" I mumbled. It really wasn't an interesting story – I just didn't like to open myself up. The short story; my mom had a large inheritance from her dad – just enough to make her a billionaire. We didn't frivolously spend money either, so it just grew, and grew, and grew.

"Kay," Annabeth said. Her brain-deadness had worn off, leaving her more like a normal person, and less like a hormone-driven teenager.

I drifted off during the _very_ long drive…

_No! You let them get it? _A cold, steely voice said.

_I'm sorry… they were too quick, and I could not summon an earthquake quick enough._ A more feminine, but still cold voice said.

_There is no time for apologies. We must stop them… Hades's helm is retrievable, but Zeus's bolt is beyond reach… unless… the titans have switched sides… Improbable, though. The titans are not idiotic enough to switch sides, and help the gods instead. No, they will side with us. All we have to worry about is Prometheus, who is neutral. _

_Yes, we have nothing to worry about. After the world is ours again, we can get rid of the mortals, the monsters, the demigods, the heroes, the gods, and even our children – the titans. Then we shall be together, my love._

And I shuddered back into reality.

The dream had been so dark, so _cruel_. I could feel a cold pit settling in my heart – if what they said was true, then all hope could be lost.

I looked around me, we appeared to be very close to Springfield, Illinois. The driver had a Starbucks cup in his hand, and I could now see his features easily; he had salt-and-pepper hair, light skin, a black tracksuit on, Nike sneakers, and his cell phone oddly had a caduceus on the antenna.

He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on who exactly he was, until he looked at me in the rear-view mirror with his startling blue eyes – Luke's eyes.

I gasped. Hermes was driving our taxi. I was suddenly very embarrassed that my head was resting on Luke's shoulder, and his resting on top of my head. Hermes and I were the only two awake in the car.

_I came to ensure your journey safety, but don't tell Zeus that I interfered with your quest or I'm in _big _trouble. Kapeesh?_

_Okay,_ I thought back, wondering if he could hear me.

_Just thought you'd like to know, monsters are following us this very minute. The water park is currently being guarded with some pretty powerful spells – courtesy of myself – that should hold off the monsters for about an hour._

_Otay. Thanks, cousin._

_What the Hades? What is "Otay" supposed to mean?_

_It's short for "Otay Panky" from the original Little Rascals. You should know that, you've been around since the age of the Flinstones!_

_Hmm, that would make sense. And I'm not _that_ old… just a smidge older._

I rolled my eyes. _You can be so naïve. _

_And you can be so immature. But do I comment on that? No. So get over it!_

_Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning…_

_Nah, George and Martha are just acting up. Stupid snakes._

I will never understand the mind of a god.

_Neither will I._

And I'll also never appreciate the eavesdropping. Dork. He glared at me evilly.

_Sorry._

The car briefly glowed, and next thing I knew, we were parked in front of a water park.

Percy, Nico, Luke, and Annabeth all woke up at once, so Hermes probably set off some sort of a silent alarm clock.

"Where are we?" Nico mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"We're here," I said.

"_Already?_" Percy said, yawning. "And we're at the _exact_ location?"

"I told him the address," I said.

I handed Hermes my credit card which he swiped, and then gave back to me. He nodded a goodbye, and we got out of the car into the old rundown water park.

"So… where exactly is it?" Luke said.

"Probably the same place where we found Ares's shield," Percy said. **(A/N: I couldn't remember if it was Ares's helmet or his shield, and I was too lazy to go find the book. Forgive me if I'm wrong.)**

"And that would be…?"

"The tunnel of love."

Annabeth giggled. There's the hormone possessed teenager again.

"Mind if we go ahead?" Percy asked.

"Go ahead," Luke said. "Make sure to get eaten by spiders," he said very quietly, under his breath.

I suppressed a laugh, and we headed forward to find my dad's helm, only to hear the terrified screams of Percy and Annabeth.

**I was too lazy to get past a thousand words. I'll continue this fraction of the quest next time!**


	15. Chapter 15

We ran around a closed-up taco stand to see Percy and Annabeth in a large circular dome surrounded by mechanical spiders. Annabeth was clinging to Percy's arm – which was turning blue – like her life depended on it.

Nico ran over and jumped the side of the large clear dome and started smashing the robotic spiders with the hilt of his sword. More and more spiders poured out of the ground, until the dome was practically overflowing with them.

"Nico, open up the ground!" I yelled.

He smacked his hands together, and a large rip appeared in the ground. The spiders all fell in, screaming their high-pitched electronic screams, leaving the large bowl empty.

"Well that was weird," I said. Annabeth was shaking, Percy was hugging Annabeth affectionately, and Luke and Nico were just sort of sitting there looking confused.

"So… what exactly happened?" Nico asked.

"We went into the dome to explore, and all of the spiders started coming out. I thought they had all left since last time." Percy said.

"Last time?" My ADHD reflexes kicked in and I started noticing things – like the golden cupids that had shot their arrows at each other, forming a net above us, and even worse… they had cameras aimed at us.

I ran up to one of the cameras and closely inspected it.

"They're broadcasting straight to Olympus," Percy said.

"Oh, really?" I asked, my devilish side coming up. I hopped right up in front of one of the cameras and smiled broadly before giving the camera the finger, then turned the camera off. "Okay then, let's find my dad's helm!"

Geez, apparently Gaia and Uranus aren't very creative where they hide stuff. Nico and I were raiding the hamburger shack (I was looking for a veggie burger to satisfy my vegetarian needs) when we opened up an upper cabinet, and out tumbled Hades's helm.

"Hey, uh, Nico," I started, twirling the large metal helm in my hand.

"Yeah?" He caught sight of the helm. "Whoa, can I see it?"

I tossed it to him, and he snatched it out of the air. He stuffed it on his head and immediately became invisible.

"Where'd ya go?" I asked, whacking at the air around me. My hand connected with something hard, and invisible. Nico grunted and became visible again. "Oh, there you are! That's cool, it makes you invisible?"

"Well, yes, in a way. It just makes you darkness. Does that make sense?"

I nodded. "Yup. We should probably go tell everyone that we found this… then off to LA… or is it the underworld? Well anyways, off to Tartarus to get Zeus's bolt back."

He scrunched up his eyebrows. "I wonder if they named Tartar sauce after Tartarus. That would be interesting to know." **(A/N: If you know the answer to that one, please let me know! Yeah, I have a weird mind.)**

I rolled my eyes at him. "I don't know how your brain works, but it certainly doesn't work the normal way."

"Look who's talking."

**(A/N: If no one's noticed yet, I **_**really**_** hate writing dialogue, so excuse me if there isn't enough for your taste. I try to put a reasonable amount, but talking just really isn't my thing, even if I'm just writing it.)**

I acted as ninja-y while going to find everyone, ducking behind trash cans and fallen signs before finding Luke coming out of the bathroom and Percabeth walking out of the end of the Tunnel of love ride. Gross.

"Hey guys, guess what we found?" I said.

"Uh… let me guess, the helm?" Percy said sarcastically.

"No, the Mars Rover. YES THE HELM! What did you _think_ we found?"

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I dunno…"

"Obviously," I said, heading to the gates. Hopefully, we would be able to catch a bus to LA, but you never know if a bus driver has a "No Demigods" policy. Thankfully, the bus driver let us on without a second thought.

"Where to?" he asked.

"Los Angeles, California."

He shrugged. "You'll have to make four bus changes, but okay. We'll get you there."

"Thanks, sir," I said, and handed him a large wad of cash.

"No, thank _you_, ma'am," he said, inspecting the cash curiously.

We took seats at the back of the bus and threw our bags into the overhead compartments. I settled into the very back seat and rested my head against the window. Percy plopped down next to me.

"Hey Natalie," he said.

"Hey Percy."

"So… I want to apologize for what Trevor did."

"What?"

"When he cheated on you. I know he feels bad, because the whole time that you were in the infirmary, he moped around and cried. He feels horrible about what he did to you."

"But he knew how I felt about him, so it just makes what he did even worse. I don't think I can forgive him, Percy. But thanks for telling me."

He awkwardly patted me on the arm and moved into a seat next to Annabeth, and Nico slid into the seat where Percy previously was. Luke was asleep in the seat in front of me.

"Natalie, you've seemed too distant lately. Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've just had a lot to think about, a lot to deal with."

He was quiet for a minute. "You remind me so much of Bianca."

"How so?"

"You both work too hard on making everyone happy. I've heard that children of Hades's fatal flaw is holding a grudge, but you obviously don't. Your fatal flaw is like Percy's; you find a need to keep everyone around you safe and happy."

"Is that a good thing?"

"…Yes. It is."

I smiled at him. "Good. It's good to know that I can be like my half sister in one way or another. And Nico, I'm sure she'd be proud of you. You're a hero, you know."

He stared at the back of the seat in front of him. "I've heard. Thanks, Nat."


	16. Chapter 16

**Okay, so I'm pretty sure I know where I want the story to go. WARNING: If you're a guy, this may get **_**very**_** girly, maybe even **_**too**_** girly for your taste. There will be lots of relationships and drama, there will be happy endings, and for some, very sad endings. I'm going to write 3-6 stories, each with maybe 20-50 chapters, so there'll be lots to read. And let me tell you, you won't expect where I'm going to lead the story. Oh, and I came up with all of this while daydreaming last night. LOL, enjoy!

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**

Ugh. Sleeping on a bus isn't fun. I went over the events of the past few days, and came to the conclusion that we had been gone for about two, almost three days now. I felt tired and worn out, but I knew that we wouldn't be able to return to camp for at _least_ another week. Our biggest challenge would definitely be having to get Zeus's bolt from Tartarus. We didn't know how to get down there, let alone have the Titans agree to hand over the bolt.

I groaned at that thought.

The possibilities at them _actually_ agreeing to hand it over was nearly impossible. _Nearly_, but not completely. There was still that little shred of hope that they wanted to topple their parent's throne just as much as a few thousand years ago.

The scars running up the left side of me started aching, warning me that a storm was coming. Luke's snores interrupted the near-silence on the bus. Annabeth was asleep next to Percy with her head on his shoulder, and Nico was listening to some songs by Ludo on his iPod. I was the only one who didn't know what to do.

On cue, Nico went into his black Jansport backpack and pulled out a Rubix cube.

"Knock yourself out," he said.

I sat there for what felt like hours turning the little colored cubes every which way, until I thought logically. I pulled out a small knife and cut the little thing to pieces, then put it back together so all the sides matched up.

Nico glared at me. "What? I was just getting all of the sides to match up." He rolled his eyes and turned his iPod back on.

*A LOT OF HOURS LATER*

We stood in front of the Hyatt in Los Angeles with our bags, ready to check into the hotel and rest before we went to the underworld/Tartarus.

"Do you have reservations?" The lady at the front desk said. She looked us over and probably just saw: two overly-affectionate teenagers, one gothic young teen, a punky southern Californian wearing a two-sizes-too-big black hoodie, and a very cute young adult. Correction: I _know_ she noticed Luke, because she started flirtatiously twirling her brunette hair and batted her sky blue eyes at him.

I tried not to rip her head off.

"Yes," I said, through clenched teeth. I gave her the name it was under, and she handed me two room keys for rooms 304 and 305. "Thank you very much, ma'am."

"I can help you carry you bags to your room if you want—"

"That won't be needed. We're perfectly fine on our own, thank you." I grabbed my duffel bag and pulled Nico and Luke by their wrists to the elevator. Percy and Annabeth trotted after us with the bags.

"Uh… you alright, Nat?" Luke asked, as the elevator zoomed up to the third floor, where we got off.

I nodded angrily. "Fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Let's just get to the room." I swiped the card for room 304 and tossed the other key to Annabeth and Percy, who were staying in the room right across the hall from us. We had decided privately on the bus that Nico, Luke, and I would be staying all in one room so none of us would have to put up with their… _annoyingness_.

I took the bed closest to the window, and Nico and Luke would share a bed. I sat on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands and completely shut myself down. I closed out all senses and fell asleep on an actual bed for the first time in what felt like years.

_A woman with deeply tanned skin and rich black hair stood in front of me, with eyes as green as grass._

"_Who are you?" I asked._

"_I am Gaea. Why do you try to stop us, young demigod?"_

"_Because I have a home, and family, and friends, and people that I love to protect, and I can't just let you go and destroy everyone. I'm sorry, lady Gaea, but I _have_ to stop you."_

_She nodded solemnly. "I understand. To be honest with you, I don't want to do this anymore. It has become too hard to carry on and stop you, and I already know that the titans will side with you. Your side would win this round. But Uranus is persistent. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. That's why I am giving you this advice. Go to Persephone and tell her that you need to find the Doors of Death. They are the passageway down into the depths of Tartarus. And don't worry; there is an elevator. You can persuade her if you must, but do not offer money to her. She would not like that. Offer a service of some sort. If you do that and retrieve the bolt within the next week, you may win. Do not take the plain or bus back, though. Uranus is planning that you will, and if you do, you will all be killed. I would suggest either walking or getting a ride from a higher being."_

"_Um, thank you, grandma—er, _Gaea_. If we win this battle, it will be because of you. I'm very grateful, so thanks."_

_She waved at me, and the dream ended._

…

"You like her, right?" Nico's voice said.

I stayed turned towards the wall – away from them – with my eyes shut, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Well… yeah. I do," Luke replied quietly.

"Okay, that's what I wanted to know. If you _ever_ go out with her, even though you are a little old for her, you had better treat her with every little amount of respect you have. I may not have known her for that long, but she's my sister, and I love her. And if you so much as say one little thing that hurts her then so help me I _swear_ I'll murder you. Got it?"

"Okay, Nico. So… is this like, you giving me _permission_ to date her?"

Silence, then: "Yeah, I guess so. So… when are you going to… you know… ask her out?"

"I don't know. Maybe after the quest I'll ask her to go to the movies with me or something."

I heard rustling noises; Nico getting a pack of pretzel M&Ms. "Good. Because I can tell you for a fact that she likes you a _ton_ too, so you asking her out will make her day."

I could practically hear Luke smiling. "She does? That's—" He started to say 'so cool', but decided otherwise. "—nice. That's very nice."

I smiled to myself.

_YES! YES! YES! YESSSSS! This is the best day _ever_! He likes me!_

"She's been asleep all day and all night. Do you think she'll _ever_ wake up?"

_Nah, I think I'll just go back to sleep…_

**So, Natalie FINALLY knows that Luke likes her back. I did say that this was going to get a lot girlier, didn't I? Tell me what you think!**


	17. Chapter 17

We stood in front of the "recording studio" otherwise known as the Underworld.

"Well… we shouldn't waste time," Nico said, holding the door open. Percy and Annabeth had stayed at the hotel; we didn't need the extra baggage on this trip. "You first, Natalie. It _is_ your quest after all."

I frowned. "Gee, thanks Nico. How _caring_ of you," I said, stepping into the cold lobby. Dead souls glimmered lightly in the dark room, and a big guy in a purple Italian suit and Gucci glasses sat at a small desk in the middle of the room.

He looked up at us from behind a _Vogue_ magazine. "Master Nico, an honor to see you. May I ask who the two others are?"

"The _other_ two are Luke Castellan, son of Hermes," his jaw dropped. "And Natalie Guthrie, daughter of Hades. We have a quest here, thank you very much."

Nico rolled his eyes at my unusual assertiveness. "What she's saying is that we need into the Underworld, or to Tartarus to be specific."

Charon's jaw dropped so much that I _swear_ it could have scraped the ground. "Tartarus? And I didn't know that master Hades had another child…" he mumbled something like "But then again, no one ever tells me anything around here."

"Yes yes, we're going to Tartarus _and_ he has a daughter. So? Now please let us through."

Charon nodded and stuck a key into the elevator to let us back. He stepped in and let the door slide closed, and the elevator went pitch black for a minute. When the lights came back on, they were a dim red, and Charon was wearing a dark draping cloak with the hood up. You couldn't see his eyes; he didn't have any. It was just a pasty white skull's head with empty sockets for eyes and a large toothy grin.

"Charon, you look like skin and bones. Scratch that; you look like bones. Don't you ever _eat_?" Luke said.

Charon rolled his eyes. "That was cheesy, Luke," I said.

He shrugged. "But it fit."

The elevator, or may I now say _ferry_ pulled to a shady corner off of the water with a heavy _thump!_

"You're here," Charon said, holding out a bone hand.

Nico dug into his pocket, finding four drachma and slapping them into Charon's open palm. "More?" he complained, finding three more before Charon would leave. "Sheesh, that guy is going to run me dry!"

"We need to find Persephone," I said, completely ignoring Nico's comment.

"Why?" Luke said.

"Because she knows where the entrance to Tartarus is."

They were quiet. "How do you know that?"

"Gaea told me. We need to ask for the doors of death."

"Okaaay… if you say so…" Nico said sarcastically.

"Well guess what? I _do_ say so," I said, walking towards a large group of souls and from what I could see, Cerberus. His three heads all stared directly at us with large piercing red eyes.

"Cerberus!" Nico yelled, running up to the two-story-tall dog. Cerberus wagged his tail happily, knocking down a few security ghouls in the process, and big drops of doggy drool falling to the ground. "I haven't seen you in ages buddy!"

"Uh, Nico, we're kind of on a time-sensitive mission here, so can you save the meet-and-greet for later?"

He scratched behind Cerberus's massive ear. "Yeah, I guess so. Bye Cerb," he said wistfully.

"So where do we go?" Luke asked.

Nico lead us along winding paths made of crushed green stalactite until we came to a large sad-looking house. It made me feel just as depressed as when I finished the FMA Brotherhood series. **(A/N: I really did just finish the series on Hulu and it made me sad because I wanted more. I'm considering re-watching the series or even watching the original FMA. Idk…)**

"So here's Persephone's house," Nico said.

"So… now what?" Luke asked.

I walked up to the heavy wooden gates and knocked as hard as I could, leaving my knuckles bright red. They swung open, and the pathway glowed for a moment. "I think she said we can come in," I said.

We followed the path up a winding stairway to a large set of oak doors inlaid with golden flowers with rubies in the center. A massive brass knocker sat in the middle of the right door, which I used to knock on the door.

The door swung open, and there stood Persephone herself in shining green and orange robes. Nico and Luke bowed, but I just stood there awkwardly.

"Hello Nico and Luke," she greeted them, leaving me out.

"Hello, lady Persephone," they replied.

"Who is this young lady you have with you?"

"I'm Natalie," I said. "And you must be Persephone if I'm correct."

She raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow. "And you are a demigod?"

"Well, duh. Would I be here in the underworld if I wasn't?"

"Then who is your godly parent?"

Nico gave me a _Don't do it_ look, but I ignored it. "I'm your step-daughter; Hades is my dad."

Her eyes flared dangerously. "You are?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Her eyes darkened. "Why have you come here?"

"I was told by Gaea to ask for the Doors of Death, down to Tartarus."

She gasped. "What? You can't go down there!"

"But we have to."

She didn't say anything for a minute, then turned around and walked far back into her house. She returned with a little golden key and started walking towards a very dark corner of the Underworld—Tartarus.

"You do know that you're committing suicide by doing this, right?"

I nodded. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Maybe, if we're lucky, they'll cooperate."

She snorted. "Yeah, that'll happen."

"Well I certainly hope it will. Do _you_ want to be thrown off of your throne on Olympus?"

"No, I guess not. Well, good luck to you all…" she said, as we stood outside a hollow cave. She held the key out to me. "You'll need it. Cross over the bridge in the cave, and you'll find a set of doors. The key will fit into the lock, but be careful; everything past that door could be the cause of your death. Oh, and stick to the path as much as possible; if you touch anything but the path, someone you love will die."

Okay, note to self: DON'T LEAVE THE PATH!

"Alright," I said, trying to calm my nerves. "We won't leave the path. How hard could it be?"

**Pretty hard I'd say… Sorry for not writing for a while you guys, school has been such a nuisance for me lately… I'll try to write more, but it's been hard. Hope you guys liked the chapter! Feel free to share with me what you think will happen.**


	18. Chapter 18

So it turns out that it was just one long, boring elevator ride down three million, two hundred ninety-five thousand, eighty-three floors down. You would've thought that we would have run out of air, but miraculously, we didn't. I did everything imaginable—braided my waist-length hair at _least_ nine times, braided all of Nico's hair, then moved on to braid Luke's (fake) curly red hair.

"Are you ever going to change back?" I asked him.

"Yes. And that reminds me…" he looked down at his watch and pressed a little red button, and suddenly he was the Luke that I recognized again.

"How'd you do that?" Nico asked.

"Well my dad wouldn't just let one of his kids _completely_ change his looks, you know. Any time I want to look like Lucas, I press the green button. Any time I want to look like normal Luke, I press the red button. Genius, right?" he said, as I braided one of his front bangs.

I nodded happily. "That's great!"

"Yeah, it is," Nico agreed. "So when are you going to you know, tell everyone that you're Luke?"

Luke sighed. "I don't know. I would _love_ to live as just plain old Luke, but I don't think I'd ever be able to after… you know…"

Nico nodded. "Yeah."

"I'd probably never be able to live normally."

"Luke, you can't live the rest of your life in a shell. You need to tell _someone_. You could tell Percy and Annabeth, for a start."

"But they think I'm dead—"

"No duh. _Everyone_ thinks you're dead. Tell them."

"But Natalie…"

"Please. For me," I said softly, giving him my best puppy-dog pout.

"That's not fair!" He complained.

"What's not fair?" I asked.

"That look. It's not fair; _no one_ can resist the pout."

I smiled. "So you'll do it?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, next time we see them I will."

"Yay!" I squealed, wrapping my arms around him in a tight bear hug.

"Ack! Don't strangle me, Nat! If I die, I won't be able to tell anyone."

"Oh, right. Sorry." I released my hold on him.

Nico looked back and forth between us curiously. I smiled smugly at him, and I'm pretty sure he guessed that I knew about his and Luke's "private" conversation.

"Natalie, you little—"

"You started it," I interrupted. He started to open his mouth to complain, only to realize that I was right. He _had_ brought up the conversation, after all.

"Whaaaaat?" Luke asked.

"Nothing," Nico and I said in unison.

The elevator dinged to a stop. It had taken a solid forty-five minutes to get from the Underworld to the bottom of Tartarus. The doors slid open with a light _Woosh!_ And we stepped out into the endless darkness. A hall way was illuminated with little white torches on the walls, which didn't shed very much light. And it wasn't normal light either—it was dark, cold light that made you feel empty and sad.

"I don't like it here," Nico said, a slight quiver to his voice.

"Neither do I," Luke said. I could hear the echo of his teeth chattering all through the hall, along with another spooky sound; it was hollow, like someone was moaning, or crying, or even screaming. It was a terrifying sound to hear.

"If I ever thought the Tower of Terror was scary, I take that back right now. The Tower of Terror is a field of Daisies compared to this," I said. On the inside, I was falling apart and just trying not to cry. On the outside, I was pretty close to the same. I found Nico and Luke's hands and latched on to them as they were comforting, and the only source of heat in the dank hallway.

"Dang, Natalie! You're like a space-heater!" **(A/N: I've been told I'm extremely warm all the time. My friends used me as their space-heater up at my camp in Big Bear when it was only forty degrees at night.)**

"I've been told…" I said, walking forward slowly, feeling ahead with my foot so I wouldn't trip. "I _really_ hope we don't die in here."

"Yeah, that would put a damper on things."

In front of us stood a small set of normal looking doors, but when you looked at them from a certain angle, a black skull with red eyes would pop out at you.

"These are the Doors of Death?" Nico wondered. A small keyhole was placed just below the skull, and it was just big enough to fit the key that Persephone gave us.

"I guess so. And remember what Persephone said, if we touch anything but the path, someone you love will die," Luke said.

I gulped. With my luck, everyone I loved would die. Great.

"Are you going to be okay, Natalie? You could stay here if you want—"

"No, I'm fine. I'll go," I said against my better judgment.

I shoved the tiny key into the keyhole and turned it, and the door swung open with a quiet _click!_

"Well here goes nothing…"

Just like Persephone said, a long stone bridge stretched out in front of us, but only a one and-a-half foot section of it directly down the middle glowed bright green—it must have been the path that we had to stay on. Nico squeezed my hand tightly for a second, then started walking carefully down the illuminated path.

"Be careful," I warned.

"This is easy," he said, twirling around on the path.

I stepped forward onto the narrow path carefully. It really _was_ easy! Luke stepped onto the path behind me, and he seemed a little scared… until he found out how easy it was.

We were halfway across the bridge when it started shaking—a _massive_ earthquake. Along with the earthquake, my head burst in to head-splitting pain.

"It's out dad!" Nico screamed with his hands clamped over his ears, and his eyes squeezed shut in pain. "He's mad that Persephone let us down here, and he's afraid that the titans will kill us!"

I was in too much pain to notice that he said _us_. I was also in too much pain to notice that I was slowly tilting more and more to the side, until I fell.

**Natalie fell, but not forward or backwards. What does that mean? **_**Someone**_** is going to die, but I'm not telling who. Enjoy!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys, it's been forever and I'm so sorry. School and karate have been taking over my life and I haven't had any time to write. :( It's pretty sad. Hope this sorta makes up for it, and no, you don't find out who died in this chapter. That's a good thing. Enjoy!

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My hands hit the hard stone, and I could feel the skin on my hands get cut open as the dark hall shook. I pulled myself quickly to my feet, a hard pit settling in my stomach with the feeling that something horrible had just happened. Nico raced forward, and I followed as Luke's pattering footsteps approached behind me. Blood dripped off of my hands in thick drops, staining my tattered jeans.

"Luke, look out!" I screamed, as a chunk of the ceiling came falling down. He jumped aside, narrowly dodging it while still staying on the path. Nico crossed through the archway on the far side. I was only thirty paces away. Luke came up behind me, picked me up, slung me over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could to the arch. He cleared it faster than I could have.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked him, slightly panting.

"You weren't going quick enough, and you were running with a limp. You would have fallen over again." As he said that, I noticed that my right leg was stinging pretty bad; a huge gash had cut open my jeans and my leg, leaving dark burgundy blood oozing down my leg.

"Thanks, Luke."

"No problem." That's when I noticed that the tunnel had stopped shaking. I turned to my left to see a simple door that could have passed for a simple house door.

"So… this is it?" Nico wondered aloud.

"I guess so. Who wants to go first?" I said.

"Not me," Nico and Luke said in unison.

"Plus, it _is_ your quest, after all," Luke added.

"Gee, thanks," I said, turning the handle slowly.

A rush of cold air hit me in the face, blowing my hair in curled ribbons around my pale face. Beyond the door were the titans—Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Kronos, Crius, Lapetus, Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, Themis, Eos, Helios, Selene, Leto, Asteria, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius, Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses. Atlas wasn't present since he was still doing his duty by holding up the sky.

They all looked up from their massive game of Pinochle to stare at us. Kronos stood up with his scythe in hand, and stalked toward us.

"_Who are you?"_ he growled, running his finger down the shining blade, then turning to look at Luke. "You smell like someone I recognize too much…"

Luke awkwardly scratched his head. "Yeah… maybe I do…"

Kronos raised a brow. "No why do you smell so much like my old friend, Luke?"

"You two can chat later, but we need something, Kronos. It's hidden down here."

"And what would that be?"

"… Zeus's bolt."

Kronos's brows disappeared into his hairline. "What? Why would it be down here?"

"Uranus and Gaea hid it down here."

Kronos threw back his head and laughed. "I'm afraid they've pulled a nasty trick on you, young demigods. There is no bolt down here."

"There's no bolt down here? Then what's that?" I asked, pointing to Lapetus who was picking his teeth with the sharp side of a long glowing bolt.

Kronos facepalmed. "Lapetus! I told you _hide_ it, not to use it to get the ambrosia out of your teeth! You buffering buffoon!"

"Sorry, boss!" He said, throwing the bolt aside.

Kronos turned back to us. "We cannot permit you to leave here with that bolt."

"Why?" I complained.

"Because that would mean that you win.

"Percy, I have a bad feeling… like they're in danger," Annabeth said, her head leaned against Percy's shoulder.

"So do I. Should we go after them?" From the balcony, both Percy and Annabeth could see Hades's recording studio.

"Yeah. I think so."

Percy and Annabeth put a spare change of clothes, some nectar and ambrosia, a flashlight, a few packs of Band-aids, water bottles, a few weapons, and some drachmas into a fairly large backpack, and then set out to find their friends.

Thirty minutes later, after persuading Charon to let them through and playing with Cerberus for a minute, they stood in front of the chasm that they had almost gotten sucked into one day six years ago. It was Annabeth who noticed the doors on their left, which resembled elevator doors.

"Percy, I think that we can go down in those."

Percy inspected the door closely, and found a little red button which he pushed. The doors swung open, and they stepped in. There were only two buttons inside the elevator—one to go down, and one to come up. Annabeth pressed the down button, and they started making their slow descent.

"No, let us go!" I squealed. Kronos had tied us to a pole with thick golden ropes.

"Why?" He laughed menacingly.

"Because, this is making me feel claustrophobic, and when I get claustrophobic I freak out and start hyperventilating," I said. I could already feel my breathing speeding up.

"Natalie, concentrate on one thing that makes you feel safe," Luke whispered. And so I did.

I concentrated on after all this was over, when I could go back to being a normal person. Go back to being like a mortal. I could stay with my mom at home again, and never have to see Alexis or Trevor another day in my life. I felt a warmth spread over me, and a loud crash sounded from in front of me.

There stood Percy and Annabeth, swords raised straight at Kronos.

"You guys, you need to go! It's you two versus a whole army of titans—you won't make it!"

Percy smiled widely at me. "This is the guy who originally beat Kronos you're talking to."

"Actually Percy, I was the one who killed him—" Luke started, but was cut off by Percy's stare. "Uh… never mind!" he quickly said.

I elbowed him in the ribs

"What was that you said?" Percy asked, and bit of a menace in his voice.

"Er, nothing. We can talk later."

"No, this isn't _nothing_. And you know what? This is all adding up now—all the little things that you let slip are falling into place; you're Luke!"

"Luke?" Annabeth squealed, running towards him to give him a big bear hug. I frowned. She actually seemed a little _too_ enthused to see him.

"We can talk later…" Luke said, whacking his hand against his leg, pressing the button against his upper thigh so he looked like himself again. Percy and Annabeth started moving slowly all of a sudden, like they were walking through Jello.

"You'll only talk later if you get out of here alive. Especially you, Luke. You betrayed me, and I have every right to kill you And even if I didn't have the right, I'd still kill you."

"No, Kronos, you will not kill them. They will fight," an old man with long blond hair and dull hazel eyes said. He sat in a wooden throne at the back of the room, with a ton of tubes connected to the chair.

"Why?"

"Because, they are valuable pawns."

All of a sudden, a short teenage boy in a long red cape, black pants and a black top, gloves, and long blond hair matching the man's burst through the door and started yelling in Japanese.

**If you know what FMA is, then you'll know who the kid is. He's not going to be involved in the story at all, I just needed a filler. And an escape route. Hope you liked it!**


	20. Chapter 20

**NYAH! THIS CHAPTER TOOK A STINKING WEEK TO WRITE THANKS TO MY ANTI-VIRUS BEING DOWN! *frustrated* Well, enjoy...

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"Uh… what's he saying?" I asked Nico as the short blond boy rambled on in Japanese.

He shrugged. "I dunno. Do I look Japanese to you? No, because I'm _Italian_."

"Okay… whatever… I wonder what he's saying though. And he's _really_ short, and that's coming from me; the queen of shortness!" He stifled a laugh. Luke had a weird look on his face, like he couldn't focus on anything. "You okay, Luke?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but I feel like I've seen that kid before…"

"Kid? Who are you calling a _kid?_ I'm fifteen!" The blond boy yelled. Hearing him speak English made me jump.

"What the—you can speak English?" I exclaimed. **(Hahaha, if you don't know by now, this is Edward Elric from the Fullmetal Alchemist show.)**

He straightened his long red robe and stood up straighter. "Yes. I can."

"Then why are you here?"

"To stop him!" he shrieked, pointing at the man in the chair.

"… Why?" He started rambling on in Japanese again and flipping his hands out in random directions. Out of nowhere, Kronos started laughing. "What's your problem?"

"He just called you all idiots—and I am cleaning up his language—that don't understand, and to let him just do his business then leave."

"You," the beansprout started, pointing a small hand at Kronos. "Shut up." Then, he turned around and left the way he came, but not without smashing the man in the chair with a large stone pillar which sprouted from the wall.

A dramatic exit.

"Well that was… weird," Percy said. It was the first thing he had said in a while. Annabeth stayed quietly by his side.

"Who was that kid?" Nico wondered aloud.

We all shrugged. "Who the Hades knows."

"Now Kronos," I said, turning my attention to him. "Can you _please_ let us go? We're trying to save you too, after all. It's only fair that you help us."

"Why is it 'only fair'?"

"Because; you almost wrecked the whole world. Do you know how bad a state that leaves us in? By giving us the bolt, you would atone for your deed and we _might_ forgive you."

"_Might_?"

"Fine, we _will_ forgive you. Please?"

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe, but I'll need some time to consider."

"Okay, but remember, the more time you take, the more likely it is that your parents will crush you like a bug."

"Yes, yes, that does change things a bit." I fiddled quietly with the silver band looped around my right index finger—an old gift from my mother. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Percy and Annabeth gaping at Luke, and Luke bowing his head in shyness.

"Kronos," the old man in the chair started. "Do not do it."

"Shut it, father," Kronos snapped.

"Ah, so _you're_ Uranus!" Nico exclaimed.

"The mortal form, yes. But only a fragment of myself is actually here to keep watch on them."

"Lovely."

The corner of Kronos's mouth twitched up into a devilish grin. "You can have it… on one condition."

"And that would be?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed. "When you're done with your silly quest, you tell Zeus that I've served my time, and to let me out."

I hesitated a minute. "Okay…"

"Swear to it on the river Styx."

"I… I swear on the river Styx that I will tell Zeus." The sucker didn't notice that I said _would tell_, and not that I'd completely get him out.

_A swear to keep with a final breath_

His grin filled me with coldness and terror. "Good. Because if you don't, you'll die. And because you swore it to a titan, I'm the one who would kill you."

I locked my jaw. The mere thought of what he could do to me was terrifying. He could use his scythe to cut me to bits, pound me to pulp, or the worst of all; take me to a Justin Bieber concert. Oh, the horror!

"Natalie, is that really a good idea?" Nico hissed in my ear.

I nodded. "Yeah, don't worry."

"Natalie! You idiot!" Luke scolded. I rolled my eyes.

"So Kronos, the bolt? And you _will_ let us go, right?"

"That's the problem with a deal; there's always the loophole." He went and set the bolt in front of us. "There, it's all yours, but I'm not letting you go."

Percy raised his sword and pointed it at Kronos's chest. Annabeth cowered behind Percy.

"Let them go."

Kronos threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, or what?"

"Or you're going down."

"Ooooh, I'm so scared! You and what army, Jackson?"

"Uh…"

I found this a good time to pray to the gods—no one in particular.

_Please help us… someone… please, we need it now more than ever. Please._

The stone walls grumbled, and skeletal warriors grew from the ground armed with weapons of all sorts and sizes.

"Well, _that_ army," Percy replied smugly.

"You think they can stop me?"

"Uh…"

And that's when the ropes came undone. I looked over to see Luke with a little pocket knife in his hand, which had cut the ropes off. I sprung up and pulled my sword out of the sheath on my side and pointed it at Kronos.

"If they don't, we will," I snarled.

I lunged at his throat, sword first. The sharp blade pierced skin, spraying golden Ichor all over me.

"Ack!" he sputtered, his hands flying to the open wound. I lunged at him again, this time slicing his arm wide open, and across his torso. "Who the Hades are you?"

I shrugged. "Honestly? I don't really know any more." And with that I finished him off. He didn't say anything after that. "Anyone have any objections with that?" I asked the titans.

They shook their heads. "Nope. He was always winning Pinochle anyways; at least some of us have a chance at winning now!" Oceanus said.

I turned back to my friends and picked up the bolt laying before me. "Well you guys, let's go!"

**Ah, I happy ending for everyone but Kronos. Let me tell you, this may be the end of the quest, but it's not the end of something else… :3 Keep reading and reviewing!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey you guys... I'm SO sorry I haven't updated in forever, I've just been extremely busy and had a few *setbacks* in my writing and drawing... TwT Shame on me... well, here's another chapter... PLEASE enjoy.

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**I was suddenly so tired that I nearly passed out the second we got back up to the underworld. I had an odd empty feeling in my chest, like I had lost something very important. I had only experienced this feeling once before—when my little sister died. This was the exact same feeling.

I fell to the ground—clutching my chest—gasping for air.

"Natalie!" Nico and Luke yelped. Percy and Annabeth just yelped and crouched beside me.

I noticed Luke had neglected to change back to un-Luke form, and he looked like himself. "I'm fine," I gasped. "Nico, does the underworld have cell phone service?"

"Um…" he started, slightly confused. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I've never actually tried to make a call from down here…"

I nodded my head quickly and pulled out my phone, and dialed my mom's cell phone number. I got her voice mail. I called two more times and got her voice mail both times. I then called our home phone number, but got the voice mail.

"Something's wrong," I murmured. My mom _always_ picked up the phone, no matter what, and she always had her cell phone with her. There was no way that she wouldn't have gotten my calls. "Nico, I'll be back later. There's somewhere I have to go."

I took off, running at a dark corner, and shadow traveled home.

The sweet vanilla scent of my home hit me in a heavy wave. I realized how much I actually missed home.

"Mom?" I called. No answer. "Mom? Mom? _MOM!"_

I ran through the house desperately. The microwave beeped loudly. It had a cup of water in it that had been heated for tea. The cup and water were still hot—a sign of recent activity.

The kitchen was empty. All of the bottom floor was empty, and no one replied to my call. I looked in my room. It was vacant. Only one room remained…

I pushed open my mother's bedroom door carefully. "Mom?" I asked softly. And there she was, lying peacefully on the bed.

Dead.

"MOM!" I screeched, propelling myself onto the bed at her. She lay still—unmoving, lifeless. Tars slid down my face in hot streams. This was what I got for not being careful… for falling down. I curled against her chest, listening for even the slightest heartbeat, but there was nothing but cold skin.

I sat there sobbing for what felt like hours, until I heard rustling behind me. There stood Nico and Luke in fresh clean clothes.

"She… She died, and it's all my fault," I cried.

Luke and Nico crossed the room to me and enveloped me in hugs.

"It'll be okay," Luke said. I buried my head into his chest, soaking his shirt. Nico patted me awkwardly on the back.

"It's okay, Nico. You don't have to be here if you don't want to. I know you're not good at the whole emotions thing."

He sighed. "Thanks, Natalie." He gave me a hug and then shadow traveled out, leaving me alone with Luke.

I collapsed into his arms, shaking with sobs. He wrapped his arms tightly around me in a reassuring hug as we lay there on the bed with my mother's dead corpse. He didn't seem to mind much.

Luke was better with dealing with emotions. He patted me softly on the back as I sat shaking in his lap against his warm chest. His hand slid up my arm, across my collar bone to where it rested on my chin. He tilted my head up and he looked at my puffy red eyes, leaned down, and kissed me.

The kiss sent a shock through me, filling me with warmth. It was good—it replaced the emptiness and coldness that my mom had left. His kiss felt right—the way his lips fit mine perfectly,

"I'm sorry," he muttered, resting his forehead on mine. We were nose to nose, and his sweet breath blew across my lips.

"Don't be."

"Why?"

"Because, I've been waiting for you to do that for a very long time." I pressed my lips to his again. "Thank you, Luke."

"No, Natalie, thank you. Thank you for liking me for me… and not caring that I almost wrecked the world."

I ran a cold finger down the length of his scar. "Eh, everyone has their moments. Yours just happened to be more devious than others. But that won't stop me from liking you."

I turned myself so my legs were on either side of him, and wrapped my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me in closer to him. He kissed me lightly on the tip of my nose before kissing me again on the lips.

I'm so torn between mourning for my mother, and loving Luke. I know that my mom wouldn't want for me to mourn for her, but the feeling of guilt seeps over me. It's my fault that she's dead. I duck my head in shame.

Luke tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear. "What's wrong?"

"I feel bad… it's my fault she's dead. And I miss her. I mean, she's my mom for heaven's sake! She's not supposed to be dead!" And I started crying again.

Poor Luke probably thought I was having a bipolar attack. He cradled me in his arms, softly humming a tune I didn't know to me.

Sometime amidst the crying, I fell asleep in his arms. It's a peaceful feeling when you've let everything you have inside of you out, and you can peacefully drift off.

When I woke up, I was staring up at the ceiling in the Hades cabin. I was back at camp Half-blood. I looked around, but didn't see anyone in the cabin with me.

"Nico? Luke?" I called. I stood up, only to fall over. My legs gave out. How long had I been out? I crawled to the door and looked out the window. A wave of nausea swept over me, but I ignored it as I tried to see what was going on. There was a large crowd of people outside in the dark. I could hear loud noises—both happy and angry yells—right outside the window. I absentmindedly got to my feet, ignoring the dizzy feeling I got, and walked outside groggily. I could tell from the sleepy feeling I had that I had been sleeping on some sort of a medicine.

"Natalie!" Someone yelled as I walked out of the cabin. It was a familiar voice—Luke's.

He pushed to the front of the crowd and hugged me tightly. He was in Lucas form, not normal Luke. I pressed my face into his chest and breathed in his nice clean smell. "What happened? I don't remember anything after…"

"I brought you back here. You were burning up with a fever."

"I still don't feel good…" Now that he mentioned it, I felt hot, like how you get when you have a fever.

"You need to go lay down, Natalie." He smoothed down the hair on top of my head.

I shook my head. "No. I don't want to be alone."

"Natalie, you need to lie down. You're sick." He had a parenting tone in his voice, like he wouldn't take no for an answer.

I looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Can you come with me? I don't want to be alone… not now."

He put an arm beneath my knees and behind my upper back, and picked me up into his arms, and carried me back into the Hades cabin. He set me down on my bed and started to leave. "No, Luke, stay with me. Please."

"Natalie…"

"Please, Luke. I want you to stay with me." He sighed—but not in an upset way, more of an _I give in…_ sort of way. He slid next to me into the bed, and slipped an arm behind me, so I rested against his side. "Thank you, Luke… have you been Lucas the whole time that we've been back, though?"

He nodded sadly. "Yeah. I've been too scared to not."

I reached across him, grabbed his wrist, and pressed the little red button that made him Luke again. "There, now you don't have to do it yourself. Just don't be Lucas again. I want Luke, not Lucas." I pulled the watch off of his wrist.

He leaned down and kissed me on top of the head. "Alright."

And at that very moment, I was the happiest I had been in a very long time.

**Well? They finally got to this point! *sighs* And now to go further into the plot. I said this might get a little sappy at times, and I meant it. It won't get rated R or anything, but you know, it won't be rated PG either.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hey guys! Thank you SO MUCH to CoruptionToday for the amazing idea to change the story's name, AND for coming up with a new name for it. This is the last chapter of my PJO fanfic… :( But don't worry; I'm coming out with a second installment soon. You didn't think I'd leave this **_**that**_** quickly, did you? Enjoy!**

A loud screech woke me up. Luke had his cheek rested on top of my head, and he was fast asleep. I pretended not to be awake. I felt Luke stir from his sleep, and looked up at the intruder, who from the look of it was Clarisse.

"Luke?" She yelped.

"Shh," he hushed her. I heard a dull thud, as Clarisse passed out. Luke groaned and slid his arm out from behind me to go get her up. I sat up and peeked over at him tilting her head up. Her eyes had rolled back in her head, and her head lolled lifelessly. "She really went out this time."

"How can I help?" I asked. He jumped in surprise of hearing my voice, as he did not know I was awake.

"Nothing, she'll wake up in a second." And she did. Her eyes snapped open and focused on his face.

"L-Luke, you're alive?"

"No, Clarisse. I'm a ghost. _Yes,_ I'm alive."

Her face turned red, whether in embarrassment or anger, I don't know.

"But… how?"

"I really don't know."

I sat there awkwardly. "Clarisse, you okay? Did you hit your head…?"

"No, I'm fine." She stood up and brushed herself off, then turned and left the cabin.

"Well that was weird," I said. "How long was I asleep?"

"Just overnight, but you still have a fever. I need to go get Chiron to get your medicine." I nodded my head, which was aching horribly. Luke grabbed my arm when I started to fall over, and directed me back to the bed. "I'll be right back."

He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with Chiron. He had a bottle of goopy looking purple stuff, which he poured into a spoon and forced me to gulp down. "Why am I so sick?" I asked. "What happened?"

"Natalie, we found something out while you were asleep."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, firstly, three new campers came. None of them had official Greek parents. You're along the same line as them."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Your father wasn't completely Hades… it was Pluto, the Roman god of death."

"So I'm not Greek?"

"No, you're not. And another thing, Percy has gone missing. The new campers were sent out on a quest to find him."

I frowned. "If I know Percy, he's not in that much trouble, and he can handle whatever gets thrown at him. Who are the new kids?"

"Piper; daughter of Venus, Leo; son of Vulcan, and Jason; son of Jupiter."

"Aka Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Zeus, right?"

"Yes, very good. You're familiar with Roman mythology?"

"Just a bit. Everything will be okay, right?"

He nodded. "Of course. They're on the same track as you; they're fighting against Gaea."

I sighed. "Anything _else_ I should know?"

Chiron nodded nervously. "Uh… yes… Luke told me about a healing power that you have."

"Yeah, so?"

"Natalie, that power only shows up about once every thousand years."

I smiled. "Cool."

"You're not shocked by this at all?" Luke asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. Not the slightest bit." I then remembered my mom. "What do I do about my mom, though?"

"We can organize a funeral for her, if you want. Greek style of course."

"Thank you, Chiron. That would mean the world to me. One more question; why am I _so_ sick?"

A bead of sweat popped up on his brow. "That's the thing… that's Hades claim on you being removed for Pluto's claim to take effect."

"Oh. Well that's weird." Because this just happens every day to normal kids.

Chiron sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "It is. And it's also, no offence, a flat-out bother. The gods are requesting that you go to the Roman demigod camp for as long as you want just to see what they're like. Now, mind you, we don't have the slightest clue where the camp is. Luckily they've provided a map that only you are allowed to see. If anyone else tries to look at it… it would have the same effect as looking at a god in their true form. You'll need to set out as soon as you're able to." He stood up from the end of the bed and started to leave. "Oh, one more thing before I forget, they granted you permission to bring one person with you. Choose wisely." And then he left.

I rubbed my temples. "That won't help you process the information any better," Luke said with a smirk.

"I know that… I just don't know who to bring with me," I replied.

"I already know you'll bring me," Luke said. For a moment, I could _really_ see his relation to Hermes. "And you know it too. Chiron told me and Nico what he just told you a while ago, while you were asleep, and Nico didn't react too well… Actually, he punched a wall through."

"Why?"

"Apparently he's had some sort of a bad run-in with a Roman demigod. And now he's gone looking for Percy… and I really want to come with you…" He put on his best puppy-dog-pout face, which I admit, was really adorable.

I sighed in exasperation. "Fine. You win. I choose you to come with me to the Roman demigod camp."

He smiled a lopsided grin. From somewhere outside, the conch horn blew. "Dinner time," Luke announced. "And you haven't eaten for a few days. I think it's time you go out."

I pushed the covers off of me and swung my legs over the side of the bed, and pushed myself onto my feet, only to fall over. "Too dizzy. I'll wait until tomorrow to eat."

He shook his head. "No, no. That won't do. I'll just carry you out there."

Before I could object, I was cradled against his chest and halfway out the door. I closed my eyes after I caught the look on a familiar camper's face when he saw Luke…

But I had to listen to the yelps and outraged cries of the campers that knew him as we passed by them. Oh boy, this would be one _Hades_ of a dinner.

**:D I hope that wasn't too much of a derpy end… well, until the second installment, I bid you adieu!**


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